Northern California is full of amazing hikes and scenery. Tanner has taken me a few places here and there when we visit, but over Christmas break, we did two hikes. The first was before Christmas to Whiskeytown Falls. I forgot my camera that trip :( but we took out golden retriever, Sadie, and she had a blast! The hike was only about 3.5 miles round-trip; so nothing too strenuous. The picture below is one I took off a website. This is a little bit of what we saw.
On New Years Eve day, Tanner decided he wanted to go on another hike before we leave California. We jumped on California's I-5 going North to a State Park called Castle Crags State Park. What we didn't realize was since it was winter, the park was closed. This didn't stop us! We just parked the car outside the closed gate and hopped over the gate and got on our way to climb Castle Crags.
Now, I'm not going to lie: I wasn't SUPER excited to spend our day hiking. Earlier that morning I had been horse-back riding and was a little tired. But, Tanner really wanted to do it, so I went along. When I found out the park was closed and our hike just went from 5.5 miles round trip to about 8.5 miles round-trip, I wasn't a happy camper. Once we got started, I realized how beautiful it was up there. It starts in the dense forest area and as you climb, the trees thin and you see Mt Shasta perfectly. I can't explain in words how majestic and magnificent the site was. As you continue to climb, the path gets steep.... REAL steep and you wind around boulders and lots of rock. Finally, we made it to the base of the dome at Castle Crags! We took a few pictures-Dad was such a trooper and we didn't get any pictures with them but we had great guides: Tanner's best friend Travis and his girl Jennifer. I couldn't have done it without everyone pushing me along.
