Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. Mike White
these plants by keeping to the roadbed. After a 0.75-mile climb, you reach a signed junction with Peltier Trail on the right.
Pleasantly graded trail leads away from the junction, around the fold of a hill, and then down to a crossing of a seasonal stream that, when flowing, picturesquely spills down a grassy and rocky nook bordered by lush plants. Shortly past the crossing is a three-way junction with the Kanaka Cutoff on the left, offering a short return to the trailhead for those looking for an early escape route.
Farther along the loop trail, a moderate climb leads to the crossing of a usually dry seasonal stream. Beyond there, the roadbed dwindles to a singletrack trail and begins a stiffer, switchbacking climb through Douglas-firs, tan oaks, and Pacific madrones on the way toward the ridgecrest above. Tree-filtered views of Whiskeytown Lake along the way offer a hint of the much more extensive views that start to unfold upon gaining the top of the ridge west of Kanaka Peak. Following a fence line delineating the recreation area boundary from private property to the south, you drop steeply into a narrow saddle and then climb just as steeply toward the top of Kanaka Peak. As you near the 2,616-foot-high summit, the forest parts enough to allow stunning views from the grass-covered ridgecrest in every direction. Snowcapped Mount Shasta is the dominant Cascade volcano to the north, while much-lower Lassen Peak and its immediate neighbors lie to the east. The range of peaks to the south is the Yolla Bolly Mountains, while the broad plain of the Sacramento River stretches away into the distance. Nearer at hand, Whiskeytown Lake lies at your feet and 6,199-foot Shasta Bally, with a panoply of communication towers littering the summit, seems a stone’s throw away to the west-northwest.
Once you’ve fully admired the view from Kanaka Peak, prepare yourself for the knee-wrenching descent down the mountain’s northeast ridge, with Whiskeytown Lake in nearly constant view. Park officials have recently shown interest in realigning this section of trail to follow a less severe grade, but private property nearby limits their alternatives. After a mile or so of steep descent, the trail bends northwest and continues the sharp drop until easing just before a junction with the closed Martha’s Ditch Trail on the right. A short distance farther, you reach another junction with the Paige Boulder Trail, also closed to public use.
Gently graded trail leads away from the junction, crossing a usually dry drainage and then dropping down to a boulder hop of Paige Boulder Creek. From the crossing, a steady ascent leads well above the creek through open forest and continues upstream through the canyon. Where the path moves a good distance away from the creek, you come to a pair of junctions, the first with the unmarked Ridge Trail and the second with the Logging Camp Trail to Peltier Bridge Campground. Now heading southwest, the trail ascends back toward the creek, reaching the north junction of the Kanaka Cutoff Trail on the way. The sound of the creek returns shortly after the junction, as the trail proceeds upstream beneath the welcome shade from the riparian vegetation lining the banks to an easy boulder-hop. Once across the creek, continue along the south bank, soon passing around a closed steel gate and then closing the loop at the junction with the old roadbed. From there, retrace your steps back across Paige Boulder Creek and shortly to the trailhead.
BRANDY CREEK FALLS TRAILHEAD
TRIP 2 Brandy Creek Falls
Two spectacular falls are nestled in a lushly foliaged canyon.
Trip Type:
Day hike
Distance & Configuration:
3-mile out-and-back
Elevation Change:
700' (average 467'/mile)
Difficulty:
Moderate
Season:
Year-round; best April–early June and late September–November
Map:
USGS Igo
Management:
Whiskeytown NRA, 530-242-3400, nps.gov/whis
Nearest Campground:
Sheep Camp
Lower Brandy Creek and Upper Brandy Creek Falls will thrill you in the spring, when peak flows swell the creek and create a show of watery splendor. The moderate climb is a bit strenuous, but the overall distance is relatively short and the effort is easily forgotten once the dramatic scenery captivates you at the falls. Photographers will find the best light at midday.
GPS COORDINATES N40° 35.818' W122° 36.023'
DIRECTIONS Head west from Redding on CA 299 for 8 miles and then turn left (southwest) onto Kennedy Memorial Drive. The visitor center, immediately on the right, is the place to obtain current information and purchase a daily, weekly, or annual pass that is required to park at any NRA trailheads. With pass in hand, head south on Kennedy Memorial Drive toward Whiskeytown Dam, drive across the dam, and wind around above the shoreline to the Brandy Creek Beach Area. Here, immediately past a service road, turn left onto Shasta Bally Road and make a steep, winding climb on a dirt road 1.3 miles to a junction and proceed ahead toward Sheep Camp and Shasta Bally.
Continue snaking up the road, avoiding the tendency to stop at two separate pullouts signed BRANDY CREEK TRAIL, to another junction, 2.2 miles from Brandy Creek Beach Area. Turn left at the junction and drive another 0.75 mile to where large boulders block the road, passing pullouts for Salt Gulch and Rich Gulch trails along the way. A small parking area with a bearproof trashcan is nearby.
Description
Walk up the continuation of the road past the boulders a short distance to where an old roadbed veers uphill on your left next to a sign reading BRANDY CREEK FALLS 1.5. Climb along this old logging road through a shady, mixed forest of black oaks, canyon live oaks, tan oaks, bigleaf maples, ponderosa pines, Douglas-firs, and incense cedars, with the reverberating sound of Brandy Creek tumbling down the canyon below. A healthy understory includes a variety of ferns, as well as snowberry and dogwood. The grade momentarily eases at the bridged crossing of a tributary, followed shortly by an easy hop across a smaller rivulet cascading through large boulders, which were deposited here during a slide in the winter of 1997. Beyond the rivulet, the moderate climb resumes beneath forest cover until a very brief descent drops to a junction with the Rich Gulch Trail on your left.
Upper Brandy Creek Falls
A short, gently graded stretch of trail from the junction leads to a boulder hop of a thin stream, after which the trail climbs again through a narrower section of the canyon. Soon you reach a viewpoint of Lower Brandy Creek Falls, with a park bench nearby from which to rest and enjoy the view. As a sign indicates that the upper falls is still 0.25 mile away, you continue upstream through the slender canyon, passing directly alongside the lower falls and the cascading creek above, aided at times by the presence of some iron handrails. Cross the creek on a twin-plank bridge and then climb along the north bank past another cascade and an inviting pool before crossing back over the creek and scrambling up to a dramatic, cathedral-like view of the upper falls.
BOULDER CREEK FALLS TRAILHEAD
TRIP 3 Boulder Creek Falls