California Canon Camera Adventure

SHASTA

A photo journal of Nature Ali's northern California and Oregon Adventure

 SF BAY AREA     HEALDSBURG     REDWOOD COAST     CRESCENT CITY     KLAMATH     TULE LAKE     SHASTA     SACRAMENTO     STOCKTON     WILDLIFE

I drive through the ever darkening skies through the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge which definitely is a place deserving thorough study during daylight, alas I am expected in Stockton tomorrow night, so onward. The highway cuts through the mountains depositing me gently in the town of Shasta. Money is getting tight so the van will be my home tonight. Spending the night on Mount Shasta, I realize that one really should remember to pack the sleeping bag. Brrrr....  I awake with a shiver just before dawn and decide to clean up the van and then drive as high up the mountain as possible. At Bunny Flat several feet of snow block the road, I hop out to get some shots of the morning light on the summit, whoa, it is so cold my hands begin to freeze immediately. What a beautiful yet cold place, hundreds of American robins feed ravenously on the toyon berries. Lodgepole chipmunks, golden-mantled ground squirrel, western gray squirrel, and California ground squirrel all are busy on the mountain this morning. NEXT

It is time to start heading down the state and my first time back on I-5 in over a week. Try as I might, again the omnipresent power lines thwart my attempts to photograph the beautiful fall colors with Mt. Shasta in the background. Oy, when will we stop letting others destroy the beauty of our planet? It is encouraging that some creation's of man have beauty that does not detract from nature's majesty. One interesting site I found was under the bridge over the reservoir at Shasta, there is a train bridge beneath the car bridge that leads to a tunnel through the mountain. Really appealing view. Even though Shasta is artificial, that much water in one place does lend itself to feelings of awe. Continuing on, I pass the site of a new bridge under construction over the Sacramento River, kind of neat to see a suspension bridge tower so naked. A burning rice field is not something one normally stops for but Senator Dean Florez passed a bill banning the practice come January, so I stopped to take a historical shot and ended up with a really cool photo. NEXT

NEXT STOP SACRAMENTO (GRAY LODGE)