Castle Lake part 2

My son took this shot when we visited Castle Lake in late March 2010. As you can see it is sort of a joke shot to display how high the snow was that day. I first remember going to this lake on a dirt road in 1953 with my father. The lake is across the valley from Mt. Shasta with Mt. Shasta city being in the base of the valley interstate 5 travels north to Orecon on. The day in 1953 I was 5 years old and the rocks tore out the complete muffler system of a friends brand new 1953 Chevrolet. There was no on there then. Now the road is paved and it is still a glacier created alpine lake with the rocks traveling up on the West side I believe. In August you can swim out into the middle of the lake and see Mt. Shasta perfectly framed across the valley. The lake is at 6000 feet and can be reached by heading towards Lake Siskiyou and Lake Siskiyou Dam.

So, in summers when my family stayed in shasta Springs for our Church Conclave from the time I was 5 until age 21 I spent a lot of time swimming and jumping off the cliffs into the pristine alpine snow melt fed waters of Castle Lake. If you want to swim other than August be sure to wear a wet suit or be very hardy. It is usually completely frozen over and I often ski across it from about December to April most years. However, I usually make sure the ice is over 3 to 4 feet thick if I'm going to do that by pushing my ski pole as deep as I can. If I can push it through to water I don't ski.