Shasta!

I went to northern California this week for a retreat of sorts and didn’t plan to have a nature adventure. However, by northern California the sun had burned away the dreariness of the Northwest and there was a beautiful crisp blue winter sky … and Mt Shasta! This majestic mountain, full of bright white snow loomed in a cloudless sky. I’ve passed Mt Shasta many times and long been impressed at it’s stature – a mountain over 14,000 feet and the second tallest peak in California, only a bit behind Mt. Whitney. It is almost the southern-most of the Cascades, the volcanic range of the western US.

I briefly explored the juniper-covered slopes on the northern side of the mountain, including Pluto’s Cave, a wide-mouthed, dank depression set in the volcanic landscape. The junipers were not really shrubs, but more like full fledged trees. They dominate an interesting landscape in this part of northern California, dry habitat that is a little western finger of the Great Basin (Baldwin et al. 2012). I didn’t take a close look at the trees, but based on their height and the bluish berry-like cones I observed on one tree, at least some may have been Juniperus occidentalis, one of 5 species of junipers in California (Baldwin et al. 2012). As I continued south in the late afternoon, the valley darkened but Shasta kept glowing, the pure white of the mountain turning to a golden pink.

Reference:
Baldwin et al. 201.2 The Jepson Manual. Vascular Plants of California. University of California Press.