Castle Dome (Castle Crags)
Castle Crags State Park · near Dunsmuir / Mount Shasta · Shasta Cascade
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 5.5 miles
- Elevation gain
- 2,100 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- May–October
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No permit; state park day-use fee. The trail climbs from the forest, crosses the PCT, and reaches the base of towering granite domes below Mount Shasta.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Soaring granite spires · Mt. Shasta views · Crosses the PCT · Sierra-style granite in the Cascades
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- The higher you climb toward the crags, the better the Mount Shasta views behind you — keep turning around. It's a steep, sustained climb with little flat ground; pace yourself. The state park at the base makes a convenient car-camp the night before, and the trail crosses the PCT if you want to walk a stretch of the famous long trail.
The guide
The Castle Crags are a startling cluster of granite spires and domes that rise 6,500 feet straight out of the forested Sacramen…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Castle Dome (Castle Crags) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.149, -122.32