Samwel Cave
Shasta Lake (Shasta-Trinity NF) · near Lakehead / Redding · Shasta Cascade
Caving
At a glance
- Depth
- 100
- Season
- Permit access · Boat access across an arm of Shasta Lake · Dry season best
- Cost
- FREE · Permit/key required from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest ranger station
- Difficulty
- Adventurous — undeveloped limestone cave with a deep pit inside; a hike from the lake, then real caving. Not a show cave.
Permits and booking
- Permit
- Requires a permit and gate key from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest (Shasta Lake Ranger Station). Accessed by boat across the McCloud arm of Shasta Lake, then a hike. Treat it as a sacred site — this is holy ground to the Wintu. Extreme caution around the interior pit.
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
- Gear
- Headlamp + backups (2 per person) · Helmet (essential — the interior pit is a real fall hazard) · Sturdy shoes · Warm layer · Boat/kayak for lake access
Caving detail
- Nickname
- The Sacred Shasta Lake Cave
- Cave type
- limestone
- Tour length
- Half-day (including boat access + hike + cave)
- Formations
- Limestone formations · A famous 60ft interior pit ('Wintu wishing well') · Pleistocene fossils found here · Sacred Wintu tribal site
- Featured caves
- The main cave & the pit
- Intl tip
- Samwel requires real planning — contact the Shasta-Trinity NF Shasta Lake Ranger Station well ahead for the permit and key, and arrange boat access. Combine with Lake Shasta Caverns (the show-cave counterpart on the same lake) for a full Shasta Lake caving contrast.
The guide
Samwel Cave is one of California's most remarkable and least-visited caves — an undeveloped limestone cavern on the McCloud arm…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Samwel Cave — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 40.833, -122.247