OK folks … I’m going to make this a short post (word-wise) with lots of pictures! First up, a couple of shots looking into the “back yard” from the deck.
I love how the yard has a “meadow” look to it. The deer apparently like it too because we have several visitors in the mornings and evenings. This little girl is usually here at least twice a day, and I’ve caught glimpses of her napping in the brush near the house.
And a few shots of some of our other visitors. I brought some feeders and food for the birds, but the darn squirrels are getting more of it than they are!
Squaw Creek runs along the eastern edge of the property we’re renting. Monday morning we took Cindy for a walk down to the creek and I took a few shots along our walk.
Here’s a shot of the house looking from the yard.
Monday afternoon hubby and I decided to take a Forest Service road into Mt Shasta City instead of the highway. It was a nice drive since we got to go slow and enjoy the forest. Just before turning onto the road, you run across this view on your way up toward the local ski area.
Mt Shasta dwarfs everything else in this area. She’s over 14,100 feet and Shastina (the smaller peak to the left of the main peak in this picture … it’s actually a vent off the main volcanic chamber) is near 12,000 feet.
About midway along the little Forest Service road there was a great view of Black Butte, a cinder cone that’s nearby.
Yesterday was our long drive through the Trinity Alps area. About an hour west and a little north of Redding is Trinity Lake, one of the many man-made lakes (OK, reservoir) in the area.
I took this one from the parking lot at the lake picnic area only because it shows the striking red earth that’s unique to the Mt Shasta area.
Here are a couple of shots of the Trinity Alps from the road. As many of us have discovered, there is no way to adequately photograph large mountains and convey how awesome they are.
Those are some of the best shots we’ve gotten so far. We don’t have any set plans for the next few days, but we’ll make sure to get some more pictures … hopefully these will hold everyone over in the mean time!
© Copyright dragonfae 2011
johncerickson said:
Any idea what the rail line is (or was) and if it’s still live in any way?
Heaven help me, the area around the house looks like a GREAT place to hold a re-enactment! Rolling terrain, nicely but no too heavily wooded, a nice stream to keep prissy American soldiers at bay (Yank re-enactors don’t like getting their feet wet – pussies!), and a neat house with a cute dog to welcome you home!
And neat mountains – though I gave up going up mountains in 1989 at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Any idea what a Shasta is, that the smaller peak gets the feminine derivative name? And (snicker) Black Butte. Yeah, I know it sounds like “byoot”, but … Black Butte. (Snicker.)
Every man, no matter how evolved or sophisticated, carries around a 12-year-old version of himself. (Snicker!) Butte! 😀
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dragonfae said:
LMAO! Yeah, hubby always drops the “e” and refers to it as Black Butt. Dork.
There are some scholars who think that Shasta is a probable bastardization of Sastise which is an old (about 1830’s) name for what’s now the Rogue River. The name Shasta was chosen for the county near the mountain by the California State Legislature in 1850 and it’s believed that the “a” was probably added to make the name sound more Spanish to “fit in” with some of the other names used in the state.
As for the rail line … that is a section of the McCloud River Railroad track between McCloud and Mt Shasta City. The rail was in use up until about 18 months ago when the current owner of the McCloud Railway (the name was changed when he bought it in the early ’90s) decided he’d had enough. Up until then, he’d been running the Shasta Sunset Dinner Train … we were really sorry to see it go and keep hoping someone will step in and start it up again. If you’ve got about 5 million bucks you could snatch it up. 😉
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TheIdiotSpeaketh said:
Great photos Faemeister! When are we going to get a pic of smiling Fae herself? 🙂
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dragonfae said:
Ha! When pigs fly! 😀
Dude, I posted a few on our Ren Faire jaunts … what more do ya want? Honestly though, I’m not a fan of the camera being pointed in my direction … especially when I’m grubbed out. 😉
I’m sure hubby would be happy to sneak a few, but since it’s my blog … 😛
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Robin said:
It looks like heaven to me. 🙂
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dragonfae said:
I certainly think so. 😀
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carlaat said:
Beautiful photos – makes me feel like I’m there! Thanks for posting! Love the view of Mt. Shasta, and also the woodland trails. Makes me want to get out hiking.
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dragonfae said:
Thanks Carla! I’ve still got to process and post some of the others (work got in the way this week). It was a tad warm for me with regard to hiking though we did do a little. 🙂
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