Castle Crags & PCT (Shasta)
Castle Crags Wilderness · near Dunsmuir / Mount Shasta · Shasta Cascade
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 16 miles
- Elevation gain
- 4,000 ft
- Time needed
- overnight · multi-day
- Best season
- June–October
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No permit required for the Castle Crags Wilderness — self-register at trailheads (a state park sits at the base). Free California Campfire Permit for stoves. PCT access with Mount Shasta looming over everything.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Soaring granite spires · Mount Shasta views · PCT ridgewalking · Granite domes above the forest
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Nights
- 1–2
- Resupply
- None needed. No bear canister required; hang food. Carry water on the dry ridges.
- Intl tip
- The higher you climb toward the base of the crags and the PCT, the better the Shasta views get — push up to the ridgeline for the payoff. It's dry country: tank up on water at the lower creeks before the climb. The state park at the base makes a convenient car-camp the night before.
The guide
The Castle Crags are a startling cluster of granite spires and domes rising 6,500 feet straight out of the forest along Interst…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Castle Crags & PCT (Shasta) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.156, -122.317