Castle Crags State Park — Attraction in Mount Shasta

The hike up to the dome via the crags trail is quite the adventure. It starts as you hike almost entirely uphill through well maintained shaded forest path. These paths split and diverge a few times so having the trail map is helpful if you want to chart your progress. The uphill will be challenging for most casual hikers and water and food are a good idea. There are no bathrooms so I brought tp and a plastic bag just in case. Give yourself a total of 5 hours for the round trip, if not more, because it is helpful to stop and rest on occasion. Along the forest path I encountered numerous small lizards at nearly every step, who were actually very friendly and seemed interested in the human travelers for whatever reason. They are fun to watch. Also keep in mind that depending on the season there are various species of bees that congregate near flowers. Some of these bees are absolutely gigantic, but none were aggressive and most were simply involved in their daily activity. Once you reach the split at Indian Spring, you can take a 20 minute detour to that area and obtain drinking water and also gain some pretty spectacular views. Once back on crags trail the real ascent into the crags begins, and at this point expect to hike and navigate over a trail that sometimes disappears and reappears due to the nature of the rock formations that you will need to hike/climb through and over. It’s not that difficult to keep with the trail but for those with difficulty walking this part might be dangerous. You will see the “dome” from points on this trail and it may look close, but it is not, and rushing through these slightly technical areas will not expedite the process, so just be aware that even at this point there is still at least an hour or more before the dome, so i took my time and just enjoyed the scenery. I didn’t make it to the dome on my first hike, because I was running out of daylight, but I’ll come back another day to finish. Starting in the morning will give you all the time you need to enjoy the journey up and into to the crags and back. The downhill goes quickly but also might require some rest due to the pressure on your legs. This is a place of many energies that get more pure as you ascend. For the $8 entrance fee, you will get far more than you paid for. You can also park outside the park and hike in for free, but that will add miles to your hike to the top. This is a great place...

This is a really cool state park. The entrance fee was $8 for the day. The vista point parking lot fills up quick in the morning so if that’s your goal, I would go early.

It is possible to hike to the vista point from the flume trailhead, but it’s about ~8 miles to the vista, not including getting back to the flume trailhead/ parking lot. Also it’s at least a 1000 ft elevation gain overall. If you’re looking for a long day on the trail though, that is a great option.

I parked in the lot next to the entrance which is by the flume trailhead. I hiked that to the PCT then jumped on the PCT to bob’s hat trail. From there I got onto crags trailhead and hiked down toward root creek trail. From root creek I hiked to the vista point parking lot and from there hiked to the viewpoint. This took me about 3 hours.

From there you can either back track to bob’s hat trail via rook creek trail and take bob’s hat to the parking lot, or you can walk down the road from the vista point parking lot ( I don’t recommend) or you can continue on the vista point trail and follow signs for the campground. The trail should take you to the amphitheater. Walk toward the PCT campsites and you should see the Milt Kenny trailhead. This trail will take you to a service road. After you walk the service road for about a quarter mile you will reach a sign that says “to park ranger station” this is the last leg of the trip. This will take you back to the park entrance and the parking lot by the flume trailhead.

This loop took me about 5 hours including breaks.

The trail is mainly dirt/ rocks. You have to cross a few streams as well and there are some trees down. Nothing too technical....

Monday July 25th, 2AM. Camping here is a cruel joke. The trains run through this area in the late night/early AM, blaring their horns, one after another every few minutes or so. Earplugs have little to no effect. Unless you are a VERY sound sleeper, you're screwed. It's a nightmare. And even when there aren't trains running, the tent sites are so close to the freeway the traffic is significantly loud. I'm writing this review at 2AM because I literally haven't been able to get a wink of sleep for the past hour or so.

To add to the noise issue, the campsite is a veritable hornet's nest. Seriously, there are yellow jackets everywhere into the late evening, and I couldn't feed my dog without them swarming his bowl. And there are so many mosquitoes that, within about 10 minutes of arriving and trying to pitch our tent, our 1yr old boxer pup had at least 15-20 little welts on him from mosquito bites. Also, the restrooms were really messy, and had no toilet paper in them whatsoever (at least the men's didn't).

I almost gave this place 3 stars for the ranger being really nice, and the fact that the grounds have running water (showers, flush toilets). But I'm sorry, this place needs a 2-star review to offset some of the rave reviews about how great it is. Maybe if you're just visiting here in the daytime it's a 4-5 star park. But for camping, unless you've got a well-insulated RV or a cabin, CAMP IN A TENT AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Maybe the trains don't run every night, and maybe they don't run ALL night. But you should probably check with the ranger station about their schedule before deciding to camp here in a tent, unless you think you can sleep...