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Extreme California Shasta-Cascade area is north of north, and best of best This is a story about big skies, wide-open spaces and people chasing their dreams. It's about a place in California that many of us have heard about, but few have visited. A place that is so different from Orange County it's hard for us - or them - to believe that we share the same license plate. It's known as Extreme Northern California, an area roughly the size of Ohio that lies along the Cascade Range above San Francisco and Sacramento, a land of mountains and volcanoes, rushing rivers and bald eagles. It's a perfect place to get away from it all, which is what our family did last summer. We packed the minivan with hiking gear, fly fishing rods and a whitewater raft, then went north on I-5 toward dots on the map called Burney and Whiskeytown and Happy Camp. Over the course of two weeks, we drove some 1,500 miles, hiked 42 miles, caught dozens of trout, paddled our way over several lakes and rivers, and even took a horseback ride through cougar country. Shasta-Cascade encompasses seven national forests and eight national or state parks, and only 1.4% of California residents live there. Mixed in with the last generation of the diminishing mining and logging industry, we found people who left the city (usually San Francisco) to try to revive the region through tourism. They've opened guest ranches or B&Bs, set up art galleries and restaurants - or both, like the Brown Trout Café and Gallery in Dunsmuir (browntroutgallery.com) - and built marinas or boat launches along the vast network of reservoirs near Redding. As a result, there are just enough places to support your travels, but not so many that you're always bumping into tourists. Even in the middle of summer, there is little traffic along the highways and plenty of elbow room even at popular spots like Bumpass Hell trail and lava tunnels in the Lassen Volcanic National Park. However, it's a good idea to make lodging reservations in smaller towns and remote areas. To Redding...and beyond Some people simply book a chain hotel in Redding as a base camp for exploration. With a population of more than 80,000, it's the "big city" in the region and the only one with significant manmade attractions such as the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, which features the incredible Sundial Bridge designed by international architect Santiago Calatrava. But since it was our first trip to Shasta-Cascade, we kept moving on backcountry roads and scenic byways, staying only a day or two in each area. The late, heavy snows in 2006 kept most of the Lassen volcanic park closed until August. However, we did manage to drag our reluctant son Chris up the steep slopes of Cinder Cone, a 700-foot pile of volcanic debris with a dormant crater at the summit. Our reward: a stunning view of the Painted Dunes and Fantastic Lava Beds. Highway 89 north of the park runs along Hat Creek, with its world-class trout fishing, toward the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park, where you can cool off in the mist of a 129-foot, spring-fed waterfall that Theodore Roosevelt called the "eighth wonder of the world" because its flow never changes. Our favorite waterfalls, however, were the cascades along the nearby McCloud River. At Lower McCloud Falls, there are rocks from which you can jump - although only mom did - into a bracingly cool swimming hole as the local crowd cheers in approval. We stayed at the rustic Burney Mountain Guest Ranch (burneymtn.com) in a comfortably renovated cedar cabin, where the new owners often open a bottle of wine for their dinner guests when conversation drifts into the night. My husband Mike made a quick run to the local fly shop and hit the creek the next day, while I took a horseback ride and found cougar tracks along the way. Afloat on Lake Shasta Lake Shasta is called the Houseboat Capital of the World. But if you don't have the time or money to rent one (the average houseboat rate ranges from $5,000 to $8,000 with a week minimum in the summer), take a tour of Shasta Dam - you can see Mt. Shasta from there, too - or try Whiskeytown Lake. We explored this lovely lake on a free kayak trip guided by a national park ranger and local volunteers. There are resorts and cabins to rent along the Lake Shasta shores, and although it doesn't offer a lake view, the Cascade Cove Resort in Lakehead (cascadecove.com) was blissfully peaceful and deer fed quietly below our deck each morning. Just north on I-5, you see Dunsmuir, a turn-of-the-century railroad town famous for huge trout and what locals claim is "the cleanest water on earth." We were in flyfishing heaven at Cave Springs Resort, established in 1923 on 20 acres of old growth forest along the Upper Sacramento River. Dunsmuir was hands-down the best restaurant town on our trip. At Café Maddalena, owner/chef Bret LaMotte of San Francisco serves some of the best cuisine in Northern California (cafemaddalena.com) and Hotel Dunsmuir's restaurant is great for family meals and sundaes. We grabbed a yummy breakfast at The Cornerstone Café & Bakery before heading to nearby Castle Crags State Park, a hiker's dream with steep canyons, alpine lakes and some of the oldest rock formations in California. Finding all trails on Mount Shasta packed with snow, we went to the Mt. Shasta Lavender Farm near Weed and the 1850's gold town of Yreka. On the advice of locals, we detoured on California State Route 263, created by five bridges considered engineering marvels when built in 1929. We emerged on the State of Jefferson Scenic Byway, which got its name from a movement in 1941 when locals blockaded Highway 96 and declared Jefferson to be its own state. Although today it's only a "state of mind," people along the northern border of California still fly the Jefferson State flag, paint State of Jefferson on their barn roofs and, at times, talk about succession. Check out the State of Jefferson Chamber of Commerce at JeffersonState.com. The byway follows the Klamath River to a former gold mining town called Happy Camp, just 20 miles south of the Oregon border. There we met James Buchner, who runs the bucolic Klamath River Resort Inn (klamathriverresortinn.com) with only eight rooms but with 4 acres of riverfront property. He will loan you inflatable kayaks, give you a shuttle ride up the river and have a massage therapist waiting in a wispy tent on shore when you float back to the resort. Now that is my kind of "state of mind." Shasta-Cascade is so diverse and spread out that it is best to do a little research and pick your route in advance. The best source we found was the Northern California Travel and Tourism Network at shastacascade.org or 800.474.2782. Genevieve Anton writes periodically on Travel for OC Family Magazine. |
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