Northern California's largest national forest, encompassing Mount Shasta, Shasta Lake, and the Trinity Alps.
Shasta, Trinity National Forest
Shasta–Trinity National Forest is a federally protected forest in northern California and the largest national forest in the state. It spans parts of six counties and covers roughly 2.2 million acres, an area large enough to contain entire mountain ranges, dozens of lakes, and thousands of miles of streams. The forest is defined by two iconic geographic anchors: Mount Shasta, a 14,179-foot stratovolcano dominating the east side of the forest, and Shasta Lake, California's largest reservoir, fringed by nearly 370 miles of shoreline.
The forest lies at the meeting point of the Klamath Mountains and the southern Cascade Range, producing a remarkable gradient of vegetation that runs from oak and chaparral foothills all the way up to subalpine rock and alpine meadows. Five congressionally designated wilderness areas fall within its boundaries, including the Trinity Alps and Mount Shasta wildernesses, preserving corridors of relatively untouched mountain territory in an otherwise heavily modified region of California.
Managed by the U.S. Forest Service, Shasta–Trinity is a working landscape that combines timber production, watershed protection, recreation, and conservation. It serves as a year-round outdoor destination, supporting everything from lake-based recreation at Shasta Lake to backcountry trips along more than 460 miles of trails, including a long stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail.
