Why Mt. Shasta is a Great Sacramento Getaway

If you’ve never been to Mt. Shasta, you are missing a million delightful sights: Dreaded dude playing a recorder and following friends meandering down the middle of the street, characters stuck in a time-warp from 1969 all over the place, woo-woo shops filled with spiritual statues representing many gods and goddesses of Hinduism, an Eileen Fisher outlet, guys carrying their dogs because the sidewalk is too hot, and let’s not forget the guy who undoubtedly had to head back home to change because he forgot to attach deer antlers to his head before going out, but none of those eye-candies detract from the giant mountain ranges all around.

You’ve got your Mt. Shasta, of course, at 14,179 feet, while the town of Mt. Shasta is around 3,600 feet in elevation, if that gives you some idea of the scope. There is also Black Butte, the Crags and the Eddys — which I’ve also seen spelled by real estate agents as The Eddies, which seems kinda Beaverish to me.

This is Siskiyou County, which makes me want to repeat the word over and over out loud, maybe sing a song about it. The county seat is not Mt. Shasta, it is Yreka, not to be confused with Eureka, which is up on the coast and pronounced with a U and not a WHY like Yreka. There is also a huge lake called Siskiyou Lake. You’d think Siskiyou was an Indian name but it could also be from French origins, I suppose.

It’s absolutely beautiful here. I like everything about this place so far, and the couples massage at the spa yesterday was ultra relaxing. We didn’t get as much hiking in as we initially had planned but we’ll do that today. That’s the nice about being on a vacation from Labor and selling real estate in Sacramento, you can do whatever you want to do even if it involves changing your mind. I’d think about a second home here, real estate is incredibly affordable in Mt. Shasta, but it’s also a four-hour drive from Sacramento.

We came here simply because we’ve never been here. I have a client who moved to Mt. Shasta after I sold her home in Folsom a few years ago. That and the illustration of Mt. Shasta on the Shasta pop cans was the extent of my knowledge about the area. Of course, now that we’ve spent a few days here, I can’t imagine why everybody in Sacramento doesn’t visit Mt. Shasta and why I haven’t heard much about it, but maybe I don’t run in the right circles of people. I sell real estate in Sacramento and the only people I know are my clients and other real estate agents.

Our trio of cats are taken care of by our pet sitters staying at our home who send us text messages every now and then, just in case you’re wondering. We didn’t leave them alone to fend for themselves.