45. Black Butte

Length:	5.2 miles round trip
Hiking time:	4 hours
High point:	6,325 feet
Total elevation gain:	1,850 feet
Difficulty:	moderate
Season:	mid-May through mid-November
Water:	none; bring plenty
Maps:	USGS 7.5' City of Mount Shasta
Information:	Mount Shasta Ranger District, Shasta-Trinity National Forest

To those traveling I-5 in far Northern California, Black Butte looms as a dark, impossibly steep visage rising 2,400 feet less than a mile away. Surprisingly, a moderately graded trail can take you to the summit of this young volcano, where spectacular views await.

Take the Central Mount Shasta exit off I-5, head east through town for 0.7 mile on Lake Street, then curve left onto Everitt Memorial Highway. Drive 2.2 miles, then turn left onto the dirt road signed for Black Butte Trail. Turn right after 0.1 mile, drive 1 mile, then swing 90 degrees and head straight for Black Butte. Go right (north) at a road fork 0.3 mile farther. After another 1.2 miles, turn left at a powerline undercrossing and continue the final 0.7 mile to the trailhead, which is a small turnaround in the road.

The path initially travels through a forest of Douglas fir, white fir, incense cedar, and ponderosa pine. Common trailside shrubs include bush chinquapin, huckleberry oak, and tobacco brush. As you continue the steady climb across talus slopes, the first of several sweeping vistas opens up to the north, where you'll see Shasta Valley and the town of Weed directly below and southern Oregon's Mount McLoughlin, a Cascade sibling of Mount Shasta. At 1.1 miles the path swings southwest, allowing views of Mount Eddy (Hike 52, Mount Eddy and the Deadfall Lakes) and the Klamath Mountains to the west and Castle Dome (Hike 49) and the rest of Castle Crags to the south.

At 1.6 miles the trail heads east, offering you the entrancing image of Mount Shasta, and eventually swings southeast past western white pine, mountain hemlock, and red fir. This is a good spot to search the far southeast horizon for Magee Peak and Lassen Peak, which lie near the Cascades' southern boundary.

Climb northwest and then southeast again before switchbacking up the last stretch to Black Butte's summit at 2.6 miles, where all the previously encountered views come together in a 360-degree panorama. Mount Shasta will certainly demand most of your attention. This majestic peak, elevation 14,162 feet, is a stratovolcano formed by massive eruptions that began about one million years ago. Black Butte, a plug dome, formed from thick pasty lava extruded in four different eruptions about ten thousand years ago, making it quite young by geological standards.