Burney Falls — Local services in Mount Shasta

The waterfall itself is beautiful and the hike is short and pleasant. What makes the experience bad is the park rangers who turn people around at the entrance by saying there’s no parking space. I had to park a mile away on the highway just like so many others. Honestly, no issue with walking the mile toward the park at all, because I’m okay with the hiking part of it. The issue is that there were a lot of fast-moving vehicles on the highway (18-wheelers included), and I saw a lot of families making their way to the park (kids included), and yes, I saw families with kids in strollers too.

The part that sucked was that when I walked to the park, I still saw the park rangers turning people around, but after I walked a little further to use the restroom, I literally counted the empty parking spaces, and there were 27 to be exact that were completely empty. This honestly is stupid, because what if a child gets hit by a moving vehicle on the highway because people need to walk toward the park, which is a mile away? Isn’t that dangerous?

Trust me, people would be more than happy to pay the parking fee, which would bring in money to the park, which in turn could be used to manage these issues better. But guess what, there are no rangers near the parking area to update via radio to the rangers at the entrance. There were five rangers at the entrance station who were just standing there telling people (who were hiking from a mile away) to walk to the side of the road when there was no specific shoulder or curb to walk on.

This was my second time visiting the park, and I didn’t have a pleasant experience with the rangers the first time either. The rangers are a bit too dramatic in my opinion. The waterfall is beautiful and nature’s gift to us to enjoy its beauty. But sometimes, these things which can be easily managed make things stressful. If you want to consider this a rant, you can, but the safety of visitors should be a priority to the park, not the feeling of privilege like “I can do whatever I want.”

Learn from how National Parks are managed and how well organized they are, where they understand situations with parking and high visitor traffic and make sure there is the right infrastructure to handle visitors, making the overall experience a pleasant one. Not allowing people to even enter the park and telling them to just drive around in circles until they find “some spot somewhere” is an entitlement one shouldn’t feel the need to enforce on people, especially when this is a natural wonder.

Okay, I’m...

This spot has been on my list for a long time, so I was really excited to hear the falls had reopened, especially since I had already booked a camping trip to Lassen Volcanic National Park. We took a day out of our itinerary to visit Burney Falls, and it was absolutely worth the scenic drive from Lassen.

We arrived in the afternoon and had about five cars ahead of us at the entrance. It costs $10 per vehicle to enter. The walk to the falls is short, about 0.3 miles downhill with handrails along the way. If you want to get down to the pool at the base of the falls, you'll need to walk across some rocks, so I definitely recommend wearing good water shoes with grip. The rocks can be pretty slippery.

I was in awe the entire walk down. Standing at the base of the falls and looking up was unreal. The mist, the sound, the power of the water...it was mesmerizing. I ended up sitting there for a couple of hours, just taking it all in. California really does have everything, but this has to be one of its most beautiful waterfalls. The area is incredibly well maintained, and I'm grateful for the park staff and all the work they put in during the closure. The walk back up the hill is definitely steep, but with a few breaks, it's totally manageable.

There's a small park store near the entrance where you can buy souvenirs, ice cream, snacks, and drinks. The bathrooms were impressively clean.

I'm so thankful I got to experience this place and hope I can return someday. It's an accessible and unforgettable spot that I truly believe everyone should experience...

We drove the hour from the 5/Shasta City and we're not disappointed. What an amazing falls and so easy to get to.

The highway to Burney Falls is an easy drive through some very scenic areas. Stop in McCloud and wander a bit, but do it early as everything closes early.

Thebparknwas extremely easy to find. It was totally work the $10 day use fee to go see the falls. There is ample parking a very short distance from the trail head.

Trail is a series of switchbacks down to the base of the falls. Lots of great spots along the walk to take pictures. We got to the bottom and there were several people attempting to get on the water and wandering around, but with some timing, I bet you could get some amazing pictures.

We decided to talk the loop around and had a great hike. At a little over a mile, it was pretty good. Small children may not enjoy the up on the other side of the river, but we took it slow and just stopped and took it in. It was so quiet and we lucked out to have nobody coming at us or chasing us.

Looped back up and around and it came right back to our car.

Drove through the campground and it's dry camping, but there are a ton of sites and cabins. You'll definitely want to make early reservations, by the looks of things. Didn't make it to the lake, but driving out, we did see it...along with the train tressle from Stand By Me.

Definitely worth the time to visit. Looking forward to passing through the region again and checking out other falls...