Heading into the Beaver State 7/16/17

Leaving the Burney Falls area, we made short work of the less-than-100-mile drive to Weed, CA, near the California-Oregon border.  Traveling on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway to I-5 was great because snow-capped Mt Shasta kept popping up, looking like a giant, sort of pointy, scoop of ice cream -- below. 

Near McCloud, we stopped at a vista point and I took the photo below.

Yup, it's a vista, all right.

It was too hot to boondock, but we needed a spot for the night, so we settled on the first available campground we could get into, and we got their last site.  That's the bad part of traveling in the summer, IMO.  It wasn't ideal, but we did have an awesome view of Mt Shasta from our expansive front window, as you can see by the rosy evening shot I took, below.

When I asked if there was anything to do in Weed, the nice lady at the desk of Friendly RV Park said we could go see the headwaters of the Sacramento River, just a few miles down the freeway.  That was one suggestion and it sounded like a good one.  After all, we'd just seen Burney Creek headwaters; if we kept it up, we'd be on a roll!  We set off for City Park in Mt Shasta City.

We've actually wondered about this ... where the Sac River begins, and now we know. Shasta snow melt bubbles up from the ground, forming Headwaters Spring. Technically, this spring located at the base of Spring Hill is known as the headwaters of the Upper Sacramento River (though other branches of the mighty Sacramento reach even further into the wilderness).  The Pit River, which originates in Goose Lake at the eastern California/Oregon line is another, larger, contributor.

Didn't seem like there was much to it, but we parked ourselves on a bench and watched a slew of people filling water containers of all kind, big and little.  Of course, the water pouring out of the rocks is crystal clear.  We didn't fill the one water bottle we had, 'cause it was already almost full.  Maybe we shoulda tried it.

Filled with this new knowledge 😊, we returned to Tergel, ate dinner and made ready to pull out in the morning for Rogue River State Park in Grants Pass, Oregon ... and fun times with Sue and Mo (and Ratty Matty)!