Burney Falls – From a Dogs Perspective

HELLO EVERYONE, SKRUFFY HERE!

Skruffy, you know that when you type in all caps you are YELLING at everyone…you have a loud enough bark, let’s keep the typing to a normal voice mode, ok?

OK DAD…I mean, ok Dad.  Let me start again….Hello Everyone, Skruffy Here.  I want to tell you about our trip so far.  Here I am, scared Skata-less, (dad said we can say Skata, but not S@#t…I think you get the point.)  Here I am sitting on another wall with something behind me that all the humans seem to gawk at.  So far I have done this at Yosemite, Crater Lake, Glacier, Yellowstone, out on the highway somewhere…well, you get the drift.  Dad just seems to get off on scaring me to death with all this “junk” behind me thinking that everyone will go, “Oh, look at the cute little doggie sitting in front of [name the landmark]”.

Geeze, I saw a squirrel over there a minute ago, I sure hope he does not see me up here.  If the squirrels back at Arny and Sandy’s hear about this, I am dog meat!

Yes dad, I see that large bird up in that tree…what is it?  An Osprey??  I thought we left them back in Florida???  Yes dad, I do see that nest in the bottom right corner…it is big…looks like there is something in it.

WOW, there are two up in the nest…a big one and little one!  Yes dad, I know about the birds and the bees…don’t you remember that my boobs were hanging down when I found you 5 1/2 years ago?  That was because I had babies too…remember???

Yes dad, you took a nice picture of Burney Falls…it looks like it did back in 2012, in 2013 as it does now.  Story over, goodbye.

	DAD, NOW YOU ARE EMBARRASSING ME!  I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT, I AM WALKING AWAY! Skruffy, you know what you did, and you have to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…or I will have you doing a lot more of these postings!
	OK, but don’t interrupt me… Last night at McCloud mom and dad left me and Bubba for hours and hours while they went to get some pizza.  Well, they only left us with water and dry dog food, and well, Bubba saw the Beggin Strips, and with his big nose he couldn’t get into them, so he asked me to and…well…mom and dad came home and found me eating Beggin Strips but Bubba jumped back up on his perch, aka: driver’s seat, and pretended to be asleep.

    

Thank you Skruffy, you did a great job!  Now I will fill in the blanks…

We are at Pit River Campground about 10 miles east of the city of Burney, and 10 miles southeast of Burney Falls.  It is a Bureau of Land Management park, and the cost really hit the piggy bank real hard (we may not be able to get Beggin Strips for another month or two)…it was a whole $4 with the federal senior pass.    

  

And we really scored with our site! In the picture to the left, at the far left from us is the pit toilets, and beyond that is the camp host.  In the picture to the right is the other six sites, two filled with tents, four empty.  Our site has great shade (we don’t need sun since we are leaving Wednesday), and secluded…can’t ask for much more than that….well…an Internet signal would be nice, but it is only one night.

There is a day use area, but other than a few cars going by we have not heard a thing…and they are all gone now (5:30 pm)

Here is a picture of Pit River west of our location by 2 miles or so.

About a mile past the turn off to the campground to our east there is a vista which shows the Pit River and the canyon which has been formed over the years….and yes…

…that is a water fall down there.

On the way back from the vista you get a good look of the valley we are in.  As you can see, it is pretty isolated…we expect a nice, quiet night, that’s for sure.

Mt Shasta – Up-close

This was our first view of Mt. Shasta today on the Everitt Memorial Highway, which is really no highway, but a nice two lane road.  John S. Everitt  was a forest supervisor for the Shasta National Forest who died while fighting the Bear Springs Fire in August 1934.  A fire on Mount Shasta was a significant concern to Everitt and one afternoon during the firefight, Everitt set out alone to scout the fire. The winds shifted quickly and he was ultimately trapped and killed by the flames. He was the first forest supervisor killed in defense of his charge.

      

It is a nice road, not very heavily used and two lane all the way, although the last few hundred yards are a bit bumpy and full of pot holes.  The road a can be caught in the town of Mt. Shasta, find West Lake, which is also exit 738 on I-5, take it east and follow it to the north and it will turn into the Everitt Memorial Highway.  If you are interested in hiking the area, see this website.

There are many side roads and turn outs…plenty of opportunities to take pictures while driving or by stopping along side the road.

There are many views of Mt. Shasta, and we were lucky enough to have unobstructed views, although clouds were lingering.

The valley views would have been out of this world had it rained the night before…but the smog and smoke and gunk just hide everything below.

   

But the views of Shasta were real, real nice.

Eventually (20-30 minutes depending upon stops and speed) you come to Bunny Flats, which has the only bathrooms along the roadway.  This is one of the major hiking spots, which, if you go out for very long or very high, you put your info and money in that green tube and carry your part of the permit on you.  Sorry, no dogs allowed.  The nearby campsite is tents only, but there was an earlier campsite which could handle smaller (under 32’) RVs at a few of the spots leading to the loop.

   

Again, the views of Mt. Shasta are just out of this world.

As you get closer to the “Ski Bowl Area” you see the results of the avalanches which closed the ski resort down in the late 1970’s. 

There is still an active ski resort, but it is lower down from the summit.  Its access is between the city of Mt. Shasta and McCloud.

The “Ski Bowl” area, which is the end of the line for the car (and start of the walk for summit goers) is not as spectacular of a view looking at the mountain…

But even on a muggy, smoggy day the valley below is a pretty sight.

  

Up here it is legal to camp for up to three nights, and these two van dwellers are doing that. We also saw a class C heading up, don’t know if they are camping or just traveling through.

To some Mt. Shasta is a very special place…a place of mysticism, a place of spiritualism, a place of peace.  If you want to more about that, I suggest you follow these Google Search links:   Mt Shasta Mysticism;  Mt Shasta Sacred Sites;  Mt Shasta Sacred Places.  To us, it is just another nice place here on earth that God has placed before us to enjoy, respect, and share with others.  Tomorrow we move, but I will try to write about the city of McCloud, where the above picture was taken from.