Castle Crags SP (do-over)

We have been wanting to visit Castle Crags State Park near Castella (about 20 minutes south of the town of Mt. Shasta), as its views of the granite peaks are well known in these parts by hikers who also love the Trinity Alps.

We stopped by the park in January 2023, but were amidst torrential NorCal downpours, which eliminated our chances of all mountain views as well as much of the road access (due to flooding). 

This weekend, we continued to have nice sunny weather and, as we were due for a do-over, visited the park before we left Shasta County to head back home. 

The views of the granite peaks from Vista Point were lovely

Bye, Bye Mt. Shasta

Jumping pics are so fun!

Panoramas, too!

Tree climbing

The kids were again excited to play near the "creek" they remembered from 2023.

Niall did fall in, getting his feet icy cold, but thankfully we had extra clothes and shoes in the car, as we were headed home.

There are lots of great hiking trails in this State Park, which connects to the famed Pacific Crest Trail.  When we have more hiking-motivated and non ski-week-fatigued kiddos (they both fell asleep on our drive home!), we will go back to get higher up.

Mt. Shasta Ski Week

 

We had a fun "ski week" 2024!  The kids were off school for a week (plus the following Monday!) for Presidents' Week and we had decided to take a ski trip, returning to Mt. Shasta, where Iver learned to ski last year (taught by Brian) and, loving it, got a season pass.  (Kelly thankfully was able to watch our senior doggie, Pepper). While I had to work on call during the long weekend, Brian and his kids headed there on Sunday, and Iver asked if he could tag along ahead rather than attending "school camp" for the couple of weekdays we had to stay in town (which was okay by us, and Brian, although it was a bit strange to have a house without him-- parenting one child is way less work than parenting two! Apparently, Iver was very well behaved). 

This crew got some pretty wintry weather, which made skiing tough, but they were real troopers! 

Kelvin, Niall and I left home Wednesday after work and picked up Iver, then stayed at a nice family-friendly AirBnB rental near the Mt. Shasta Elementary School.

Lovely rainbow on the 299

We got to the mountain early and on Thursday and got a few falling snowflakes as we stood in line at the Learning Center to get Niall registered for Ski School, but otherwise had lovely weather and got to ski on fresh powder! I don't think I'd skied at Mt. Shasta since 2012 or so, but it's a nice small mountain for learners (and I wore the same ski jacket:)).

(Niall was very interested in tasting snow!)

I think Ski School was hard (and tiring) for Niall, as it was his first time on skis, but he was a trooper!

Iver, now an apparent pro, led the way up the lifts and down the slopes! On our first day, we stayed a lot on the easier slopes off the Marmot Lift, but the next day skied almost exclusively on Douglas (a bit higher up). We saw many people we knew from Humboldt, including schoolmates, and Iver's former second grade teacher!  We loved the sunny weather! 

These kids had me beat down the mountain every time but (usually) patiently waited for me at the bottom! (One time, I fell, lost one of my skis, and had a hard time getting it back on, so I had to hike down the mountain a bit. They left me that time).

A rare(ish) break!

We ate a good family dinner at the original Black Bear Diner nearby our rental. Everyone was starving and exhausted after the long days of exertion and went to bed very early!  

On Friday, Brian (a very expert skiier!) was adventurous and took Niall up Douglas (!) for his first lift ride and run!

("Brian can ski, hold me on the leash, AND take a video!" exclaimed Niall!).

I put the harness on Niall and did a few runs on the Bunny Hill, although it was hard for me (still a very intermediate skiier) to get the hang of skiing and trying not to get tangled up in someone  (unfortunately, our video isn't loading here)! We also took the lift and took the Easy Street slope all the way down (only with a few spills that Niall blamed me for!).  

I had only purchased a two-of-three day day pass, and I think Niall was done for the season, so he and I hung out playing in the snow rather than skiing on Saturday.  My legs (mainly quads) were also tired after two days of skiing!  Niall wanted to dig a "snow cave" like he saw on the Bear Grylls adventure show.

(snow hole)

We met up with friend Dylan, who did a bit of skiing but then played with us for the rest of the day.

Snowball fight! We'd left the shovel parked in the snow when we took a potty break... and then it got stolen! (However, I ran into a lady in the bathroom who I remembered from nearby where we were playing, and it turns out that her son took the shovel, not knowing it was not free for the taking, so we were able to get it back! The family is actually from Arcata, which I'm surprised she volunteered to me because Niall definitely wanted to put the whole family in jail for theft!). 

These kids played in the snow for hours (without fighting, which tends to be the case with my boys, except when Niall tried to get Dylan to climb a tree to retrieve his snow mittens). I had to put on my show shoes so I didn't sink--NorCal has had a lot of rain this winter, and the snow was deep!  I enjoyed the peaceful time in the mountains, my happy place! 

They made this is a small sledding hill

(the luge)

Iver skied almost the entire last day, even without lunch, from first chair to last lift-- and that was his sixth consecutive day skiing up there! He said he thought he went down the mountain upwards of 30 times on our last day, even managing a black diamond with Lacinda (which I'm not brave enough to do!). I'm really impressed with his skiing (, stamina, and enthusiasm!) in his second season. While skiing is not an inexpensive sport and (for us adults) seems to carry some moderate risk of serious injury, kids are fearless and clueless -- and I'm sure Iver will be asking for another season pass for next year!