March 12th 2025 in and on Mt. Shasta

 We woke up to about 4 inches of snow outside our hotel room

I'm sort of referring to the above article because these things all happened at the same time basically. I was staying with my oldest daughter and her baby in Mt. Shasta and woke up to snow pretty deep to the point where I moved my all wheel drive Car so it wouldn't be a problem. There was already about a foot of snow or more on top of the hood of my car and roof. I took a plastic ice scraper and removed enough off the windshield and side windows so I could safely move the car to a better location so I wouldn't get stuck in the Hotel parking lot where I was. Luckily, a truck with a snow plow on it had just driven behind my parking place which made it much easier to move my all wheel drive SUV to a safer location to be able to get out of there if there was any need at any time.

Later that Day a friend of mine who lives in Mt. Shasta and my oldest daughter and her daughter decided to try to drive up to Bunny Flat on March 12th 2025. As we were driving up Everitt Memorial highway up the mountain (which is the highest paved mountain except for the Mt. Shasta Ski Park which also goes pretty high on the mountain and both are paved. But I think if you drove all the way up to the old Ski lift location (it has been torn down since the 1970s because an avalanche destroyed this ski park up near Panther Meadows then).

So, as we were driving up a huge snow blower with 7 foot high blades or more (2 of them) were coming down from plowing the snow as far as Bunny Flat where the road was closed with a Gate (panther Meadows is higher way beyond the gate and usually during heavy snow times this gate is closed until the snow melts away enough in the summers (if it does that year).

So, after we passed those two huge yellow snow blowers coming down the mountain on Everitt Memorial Highway the snow blizzard kept getting worse and worse until I couldn't see the road anymore in the white out. There were no tracks because about 4 to 6 inches of snow had already fallen since the snow blowers had plowed it. So, there were no reference points at all. 

Finally, out of desperation because I didn't want to hit a snow bank on either side I opened my driver's window so at least I could keep away from the left snow bank. But, the problem with this is if anyone at all was driving down we likely couldn't see them at all until it would be too late or not at all before they hit us head on.

But, there also were no tracks at all so it was possible no one was up there which turned out to be the case.

Then we arrived at Bunny Flat and there was about 6 inches of snow on the road. But, we realized it was coming down so hard and fast and wind was blowing that it would be dangerous to stay there very long  because we would get snowed in alone up there if we stayed much longer.

So, I took some pictures of my daughter and her daughter and my friend and everyone got back in my all wheel drive SUV. 

However, since I'm almost 77 I let my daughter drive down because she has younger eyes than I do so we all felt it likely would be safer to let her drive. This worked out okay too. Before I got into my all wheel drive SUV I was hit with a blast of snow in my eyes from the roof of my car. At this point I realized it was definitely time to go because the blizzard was just getting worse and worse and with the 20 plus mile an hour gusts this also can cause drifting of snow which you don't want to have to deal with on the road at least.

However, what is interesting about this is that the 12th was the ONLY day while I was in Mt. Shasta that the MacBride Gate was open to even drive up this far because they had had problems with one or more of the snow blowers so the rest of the week I was there you couldn't drive up on Mt. Shasta at least on that side up Everitt Memorial highway at all. Not only that the Castle Lake Road up from Lake Siskiyou on the other side of the Valley where Mt. Shasta city is and where interstate 5 goes up that valley towards Yreka and Ashland Oregon eventually was also closed.

However, it was really nice to visit in a blizzard Bunny Flat because it had been a year or more since I did that last.

Mt. Shasta can be so many things to so many people.

For example, even in August I have been walking down from Horse Camp Sierra Club Lodge at Tree Line and gotten into a Hailstorm to the point where they were finger size hail and they hurt and we had to go under trees so the branches of the trees protected us from the hail.

So, unusual things can happen in Alpine Settings like above 4000 or 5000 feet on Mt. Shasta or across the Valley where Castle Lake often freezes over in the winters there too.

Amazing Experiences!