Читать книгу Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. A Hiking and Backpacking Guide онлайн

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Compared with the Sierra Nevada or Cascade Range, the Trinity Alps is a much smaller mountain range in both height and expanse. However, bigger is not necessarily better, as the Alps are filled with rushing streams, high waterfalls, gorgeous mountain lakes dimpled with trout rises, glaciated granite peaks, remnant glaciers, and cool green forests—plus some unique features all their own.

What the Alps don’t have, unlike other popular mountain ranges in the state, is hordes of people. Positioned in remote northwestern California, hundreds of miles away from any large population centers, the Alps tend to attract crowds only in a few areas. Part of the purpose of this guide is to inform the reader about some of the lesser-used places that, in many cases, can handle more visitors than some of the more popular areas.

View over Trinity River Canyon

Photo: Luther Linkhart

The Whiskeytown Unit is one of three parcels of land surrounding artificial reservoirs built as part of the Central Valley Project in the 1960s comprising Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. Whiskeytown Lake is a 3,250-acre reservoir that doesn’t suffer the effects of drawdown like Shasta and Trinity Lakes, which makes Whiskeytown a popular summertime destination for boaters and water-skiers. Encompassing nearly 42,500 acres, the land around the reservoir boasts 24 trails that are well suited for day hiking and mountain biking. With elevations ranging from 1,200 feet at the lake’s surface to 6,029 feet at the summit of Shasta Bally, Whiskeytown can be quite hot during the typically sunny afternoons in summertime. Therefore, spring and fall tend to be the most pleasant seasons for trail users. Four of Whiskeytown’s trails are included in this guide—three to picturesque waterfalls and one to the view-packed summit of Kanaka Peak.