McCloud River Cattle Camp

Mt Shasta as seen going toward McCloud on Highway 89. Mt Shasta As seen from the parking lot at McCloud River's Middle Falls.

Wednesday: (05/12) We continued Northwest on Highway 89.


We turned onto the McCloud River loop Road and decided to look at some of the points of interest. One road brought us to the deadend road at a gate by the Bigalow Bridge that crosses the McCloud River. Oops, time to disconnect and turn around. We decided to return to  the Cattle Campground that we had passed at the beginning of the loop and then continue our tour in the car.


We continued our tour of the McCloud Loop Road visiting all the picnic areas, vista points and waterfalls along the way. There is a nice river trail that follows the river that I'll hike tomorrow.


Some nice photogenic chipmunks were found near the falls.


The baby chipmunk above left looked just like the full sized versions but half the size. The river at Upper Falls flows through a narrow gorge before emerging into the falls.


Middle Falls, above left, is the best of the three falls but they are all impressive.

We drove down to the town of McCloud for some milk and to look around then returned home.

Lou fixed a salmon casserole for dinner with some brown rice and leftover fettuccine.

The weather was nice all day, clear and warm in the morning and some broken clouds in the afternoon. We finally had fully charged batteries when we returned from our morning hike, the first time in three days.


Thursday: (05/13) A nice clear morning. Lou fixed pancakes and Italian sausage for breakfast. I took the River Trail from our campground to Lower Falls. It's an easy 7 mile downstream trail alongside the river. Lou enjoyed some time in camp while I hiked and then she picked me up at the Lower Falls when I was done so it was a oneway hike.
Above is the McCloud River near the start by Cattle Camp. Above right is the Cattle Camp Swimming Hole.


There were several spots where the snow was still on the trail. There were some new flowers like the red ones above.


The flowers on the left are small white flower bunches growing as a ground cover that has leaves like holly. Also, the dogwood were in bloom along the trail.


The mushroom above had a nice look. Since I haven't appeared too often in this pictures in this blog, i thought I'd try a few with me in view. I have a tiny tripod attached to the camera that helps stabilize the pictures both by adding bulk to the camera and as a stable mount when needed.


The trail does provide a nice easy hike going down stream.


Maybe I got carried away?

Luckily, our cell phones worked nicely at most places along the trail so i called Lou about 30 minutes before i arrived at the end near Lower Falls and she picked me up. We returned to camp and had lunch before pulling out of camp.