Maddox Lake

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

Click for map

I thought Maddox Lake looked like a good candidate for a dispersed camp area, so set off looking for it. Just short of the closed road to the lake, I found a suitable space. I could hear rushing water and poked along to find a small but robust and quick flow down the hill. Then I wandered down the road to the gate to see the lake.

Closure period all year, but there's a sign to explicitly allow walking. The parking is basically blocking the gate.

It's a generally clear road lined with very tall trees.

I spotted a small pond below the road and the stream didn't seem to have quite so much flow as above.

There's pooling water down there.

A small stream on the steep.

A little further, and there's my first view of the lake. I scared off some birds on the water.

It's a very small lake.

I was rather taken by the green halo on one tree. This is poison oak.

The lake is quite shallow water with pond lilies and cattails.

Reflecting an otherwise unseen landscape.

The road continues along the edge, somewhat removed. At least that's what the map says. It didn't look much like lake through the trees as I followed that road.

There might be some more lake back there.

When the road starts to climb, it also becomes a bit more indistinct and the clearing that's happened a little stops. I hadn't walked much for the day, so off I went to the end.

The growth below the ash trees suggest water pools here by where the road fades to nothing.

So that wasn't very interesting. I headed back trying to see if I could capture how tall these trees are while standing so close to their bases.

The tree tops are way up there.

Maybe something focusing on the very tall understory of madrones and maples?

Reiterations aren't just for redwoods.

There's one that went too far and was snapped.

I found a bit of faint road and followed that back instead of going back to the main road. It looks like there was a very different route for the road once.

A second path through the trees.

*photo album*




©2024 Valerie Norton
Written 1 Nov 2024