Mount Shasta has a 14-mile road to the sky, and it starts right in town

Mount Shasta’s most dramatic drive

Mount Shasta rises 14,163 feet from the floor of Northern California, the second-tallest peak in the Cascade Range and one of the largest volcanic mountains on the continent.

A 14-mile paved road climbs its southern flank, starting right in town and topping out near the tree line at over 7,800 feet, making it one of the highest paved roads in the state.

The alpine country up there used to take real effort to reach. Now you can drive to it.

The forest ranger who died on this mountain

The road carries the name of John Everitt, who ran the Shasta National Forest in the 1930s and kept his offices in Mount Shasta City, right at the foot of what would become his road.

In 1935, he died fighting the Bear Springs Fire on the mountain, the first forest supervisor in the country killed protecting his forest. A vista point higher up the road carries his name too.

The drive starts because someone loved this mountain enough to die for it.

Where the road begins and how it climbs

The highway starts near the high school in Mount Shasta City, just minutes off Interstate 5.

The first stretch winds up through thick high-country forest, past stops like Sand Flat, Red Fir Flat and the McBride Springs area. The trees crowd the road close at first, and the views stay hidden.

Snow crews plow the lower road all winter, so the mountain stays reachable no matter what the calendar says. The forest keeps its secrets until you earn a little elevation.

Bunny Flat sits at 7,000 feet and stays open all year

About 7,000 feet up, the trees pull back and a wide clearing opens in front of you. That’s Bunny Flat, the busiest trailhead on Mount Shasta and the place where the plowed road ends in winter.

The full bulk of the volcano rises right overhead from here, closer than it has any right to look. Views stretch south across miles of ridgelines.

If you can only make one stop on the road, this is the one.

Walk 1.6 miles to the Sierra Club’s mountain lodge

The Horse Camp Trail leaves Bunny Flat and climbs about 1.6 miles to the Shasta Alpine Lodge, a Sierra Club cabin sitting at around 7,900 feet near the tree line.

A piped spring bubbles up beside it, ringed by wildflowers in summer.

From there you look back at the lodge with the volcano rising behind it, and it’s one of those views that stops people mid-step. The trail is steady work, but nothing about it requires technical climbing or special gear.

Green Butte Ridge goes straight up into open, rocky sky

The Green Butte Ridge Trail also starts at Bunny Flat and heads directly up a ridge into exposed, rocky country. The trees thin fast.

Within 20 minutes of leaving the trailhead, views open in every direction and you’re walking through open high alpine terrain. Green Butte itself shows scars from repeated lightning strikes on its bare summit.

From the top you look out across Sargents Ridge and down into the Old Ski Bowl, a panorama that covers miles of the mountain’s upper flanks.

Panther Meadow stays green when everything else turns dry

Past Bunny Flat, the road reaches Panther Meadow, a lush, spring-fed clearing where the grass stays wet and green through the summer. Wildflowers fill it when the snow finally melts.

Native Americans have considered this meadow sacred for centuries, and standing in it, with the great cone of Mount Shasta rising directly above you, it’s easy to understand why.

The meadow has a stillness to it that most places at this elevation don’t. The springs keep everything alive up here.

Gray Butte’s summit has a view worth the short climb

From Panther Meadow, the Gray Butte Trail climbs through old red fir forest to a summit known as Artist’s Point.

It’s a short hike, and the trail passes big boulders along the way that make for easy scrambles if you have kids with you. From the top you get a wide look at Shasta and the peaks that spread out beyond it.

The hike itself takes well under two hours round trip, which leaves you plenty of afternoon to keep driving up to the end of the road.

Old ski runs, old steel and the end of the pavement

The highway ends at the Old Ski Bowl, a bare basin sitting between Green Butte Ridge and Sargents Ridge near the tree line.

A ski park ran here from the 1950s until the late 1970s, when an avalanche shut it down and the operation moved lower on the mountain.

The old concrete pads and steel lift infrastructure still sit on the slope right where the mountain left them. Nothing has been cleaned up or removed.

The ruins make for a strange contrast against the raw volcanic rock all around them.

From the top, you can see Lassen Peak on the horizon

Standing at the Old Ski Bowl, the views run far to the south and west.

Lassen Peak rises on the southern horizon, the only other active volcano in the contiguous United States with a confirmed eruption in the 20th century.

To the southwest, the jagged Castle Crags and Grey Rocks cut into the skyline. The Trinity Divide and the distant Trinity Alps fill out the rest of the view.

Come for sunrise or stay for sunset and the mountain turns colors you don’t see at lower elevations.

The stone overlook that most drivers pass right by

A short side road leads to the John Everitt Memorial Vista, where an old stone observation deck built in the style of national park stonework sits shaded beneath the trees. A short nature trail loops through the forest around it.

The vista sits below Bunny Flat, so it stays open all year and sees far less foot traffic than the trailheads above.

It’s a quiet, shaded stop where you can look out at the lower forest and think about the man the road was named after.

One road, many trailheads, miles of alpine country

Everitt Memorial Highway puts more of Mount Shasta within reach than any other approach to the mountain.

The South Gate Meadows Trail branches off the road and leads to a spring-fed subalpine meadow area, where a tall cascade drops down the slope above.

Trails that once took hard cross-country climbing to access now start right from the pavement.

The road doesn’t get you to the summit, but it delivers you to the edge of true high alpine country, and most of what people come to Mount Shasta to see starts right here.

Drive Everitt Memorial Highway in Mount Shasta, California

You can pick up Everitt Memorial Highway right in Mount Shasta City, just off Interstate 5 in Northern California. The lower road to Bunny Flat stays plowed and open all year.

The upper section to Panther Meadow and the Old Ski Bowl closes in winter and typically reopens around early July, depending on snowpack. Check the current gate status on the official website before you go.

Dress in layers no matter what month you visit, because the top of the road runs significantly colder and windier than the town below.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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