I try to make it to the far north of California at least once a year. I love trees in all forms, and having grown up in the redwoods, mostly second-growth towered around me in my youth, getting into the few remaining virgin forests settles me. Their age and size put the world in perspective for me. The same things also depress me when old trees of any species are destroyed. 

My usual destination for these trips is Eureka, but I try to vary my route on the way north. In October of 2021, I headed up out of San Francisco to Redding, and then made a big loop to the east and north before meeting SR-299 in Weaverville to cross to the coast. Why? To see waterfalls.

After making a pilgrimage to Santiago Calatrava’s beautiful Sundial Bridge across the Sacramento River in Redding, I sturck out east in my semi-self driving Hyundai rental car along SR-299 to Burney. After passing through town, I spun a left onto SR-88 and drove a few minutes north to Burney Falls. 

As I understand it, Burney Creek, which feeds the falls, runs underground parts of the year and then emerges to feed the falls. Since this was an October visit during one of California’s droughts, the falls were not at their mightiness but were impressive to me. Below, you can see the outer edges of the falls emerge from the stone at a lower elevation than the main fall.

They spread wide and feed a nice pond before continuing on. The falls are very close to the parking area, and there is a wonderful loop that takes you along the creek for a while downstream from the falls. 

Back on the road, SR-88 eventually crosses into the watershed of the McCloud River. About 20 miles east of I-5 and just southeast of Mt. Shasta, the Mc Cloud tumbles over a series of three falls in quick succession. Furthest east is Upper Falls. 

The area just above the falls presents a clear view of the volcanic ecology of the landscape, The water bubbles through the crevices between the rocks.

Then comes Middle Falls. The tallest of the three falls, it is in a deep canyon. Unfortunately, I visited at the time of day and year where the falls were in shadow. Lovely in person, but hard to get a good image.

Finally, but not surprisingly, comes Lower Falls. 

This seems to be the most welcoming of all the falls, Large pools above and below draw people into the water. 

The three waterfalls, all a short distance from one another, and not that far from I-5, made for a wonderful morning adventure. What came next took me out onta a remote highway, past mountains that could host skiing adventures, if not so far from civilization. But the tale of the trip along Highway 3 will have to wait for another installment.