Cedarville / Sugar Hill
Cedarville (Modoc County, far NE California) · near Cedarville / Alturas · Shasta Cascade
Paragliding
At a glance
- Skill level
- expert
- Best season
- Summer for big XC · The far-north thermal season is short and intense
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Paragliding detail
- Flying types
- xc
- Conditions
- Remote high-desert XC launches in the far northeast corner of California (7,200 ft at one launch). Big open-distance thermal flying with committing terrain. Ridge-soar until you catch a thermal, bench up Sugar Hill, and go over the back.
- Ushpa
- P4/advanced strongly recommended. Unregulated but committing: hostile landowners in some bailout zones, remote terrain, minimal retrieve infrastructure. 4x4 required for some launches.
- Intl tip
- Cedarville and Surprise Valley are genuinely off the map — the Modoc Plateau is California's least-visited region. Combine with the Lava Beds caving (from the caving guide) and the Warner Mountains for a wild, empty far-northeast California trip. Fuel up and stock up in Alturas.
The guide
In the far northeast corner of California — closer to Nevada and Oregon than to any California city — the launches around Cedar…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Cedarville / Sugar Hill — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 41.53, -120.17