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Castle Lake (Siskiyou County, Kalifornien)

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Vorlage:Infobox lake

Red Columbine (Aquilegia truncata) taken at Castle Lake June 2004.

Castle Lake is a glacial tarn in northern California in the Siskiyou Mountains of Siskiyou County near the city of Mt. Shasta. The outlet of the lake drains into Castle Lake Creek, and then into Lake Siskiyou, which is part of the watershed of the Upper Sacramento River.

The Shasta-Trinity National Forest comprises nearly all of the Lake's Vorlage:Convert except approximately three acres (1 ha).[1] Fishing, camping, and hiking are available. Trails lead from Castle Lake into the Castle Crags Wilderness Area, and on to Castle Crags State Park, including trails to Little Castle Lake and Heart Lake.[2]

The lake and the surrounding area contain a wide variety of animals and plants including trout, bears, deer, otters, frogs, and osprey.[3] The area is also well-known for early summer displays of flowers,[4] including Red Columbine (Aquilegia truncata), Fawn Lily (Erythronium sp.), and Shasta Pentstemon (Pentstemon laetus).[5]

Castle Lake is home to the Castle Lake Limnological Research Station affiliated with the University of California at Davis (UC Davis), which uses the site for study and to teach limnology courses (in conjunction with the University of Nevada, Reno). Scientists at the Research Station summarize the geology around the lake as:

"Granite is the predominate mineral in Castle Lake and in the Siskiyou Mountains ... which explains the great clarity of Castle Lake ...."[6]

Recreation

Swimmer with Mt. Shasta in distance

Castle Lake is a convenient starting place for a wide range of recreational activities. The lake is usually reached by driving along an approximately Vorlage:Convert road from Lake Siskiyou.

About Vorlage:Convert[7] from the lake is the site of the historic Ney Springs Resort and scenic Faery Falls.[8] Ney Springs was the location of a late 19th century resort based on the mineral springs there;[9] Ney Springs Resort was one of a number of such popular resorts in Siskiyou County, including Upper Soda Springs, Shasta Springs, and Lower Soda Springs.[10] A short hiking trail leads to nearby Faery Falls, where Ney Springs Creek tumbles some Vorlage:Convert down a granite cliff face, forming a clear pool at the bottom.[11]

About one-quarter mile (400 m) north of Castle Lake is a campground. At the lake itself, fishing and picnicking, as well as viewing the local plant, wildlife and scenery, are the most popular activities. The lake waters can be cool, so swimming is generally limited to summer months. Kayaking, rowboating and rafting are available on the lake.

From the parking area at the lake, a half-mile (1 km) trail winds along the northwestern shore of the lake, ending at the granite face of the headwall, which forms the southern shore.[12] Along the way, hikers will pass the Castle Lake Limnological Research Station.[13]

Following the eastern shore, the Little Castle Lake trail[14] leaves the parking area, and then climbs the adjoining ridge;[15] about Vorlage:Convert along this trail is Little Castle Lake,[16] a small glacial tarn reached by passing through meadows of wild flowers in the early summer. Little Castle Lake is within the Castle Crags Wilderness Area. Heart Lake,[17] another small tarn, located above the headwall of Castle Lake, may also be reached via an informal cut-off from the Little Castle Lake trail.

At this point, the well-known Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail is one-half mile (1 km) away. The Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail stretches from Mexico to Canada, following the highest portion of the Sierra Nevada, Siskiyou Mountains, and Cascade Range and paralleling the Pacific Ocean by 100 to 150 miles (161 to 241 km).

The Little Castle Lake trail continues on to Mt. Bradley,[18] a locally prominent mountain with views of Mt. Shasta, overlooking Dunsmuir, California and the canyon of the Upper Sacramento River. Along the way, the trail joins with a network of connections leading into Castle Crags State Park.[19]

Formation of Castle Lake

Castle Lake with the headwall at the right, and the terminal moraine at the left.

The lake's origins date to the Pleistocene Era (more than 10,000 years ago) when a glacier carved a basin in the location of the current lake. During that era much of North America was glaciated.[6] Castle Lake is a typical glacier cirque lake, reaching depths of up to Vorlage:Convert along the southern part of the lake (the cirque face).[6] There is a terminal moraine of boulders and gravel forming a natural dam opposite the cirque face along the northeastern shore of the lake, where there an outlet, and the lake is 10 to 15 feet deep (3 to 5 m).[6]

The cirque where Castle Lake is found is a classic Northern Hemisphere cirque. The cirque headwall (the highest part of the mountain where the glacier began to form) was in the south or southwest, and the part of the mountain that sloped downward to the northeast was away from the prevailing winds.[20] The resulting shaded area was sheltered from direct sun, and from the evaporating effects of wind. These conditions encouraged snow which had fallen in the winter to remain throughout the summer and fall.[21]

Formation of cirque and resulting tarn.

During initial glacial formation snow changed into glacial ice as this year-round snow pack increased and deepened. The process of nivation followed (where a hollow in a slope was enlarged by freeze-thaw weathering and glacial erosion).[20] As the hollow enlarged and filled with snow and ice, rock debris (or till) contained within the glacial ice also began to abrade the bedrock surface - as the glacial ice moved down the slope, it had a "sandpaper effect" on the bedrock which it scraped.[21]

Eventually the hollow took the shape of a large bowl in the side of the mountain, with the headwall being weathered by constant freezing and thawing, and eroded by plucking. The basin became deeper (especially at the base of the headwall) as it continued to be eroded by abrasion.[21]

When the current warming period began, the glacier retreated and finally melted completely. It left behind a bowl shape, deepest at the base of the headwall where the glacial ice had been the deepest and most abrasive.[20] The bowl shape extended to its northeast edge, where there was a terminal moraine of smaller rocks and debris which had been deposited by the glacier. When the bowl filled with water, this terminal moraine acted as a natural dam, helping to contain the water in the newly-formed cirque lake.[21]

Animal life

Humans introduced fish into the lake in the 1930s for sport fishing, including Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Brook Char (Salvelinus fontinalis), and Golden Shiner (Notemigonus crysoliecas).[22] The Rainbow Trout is stocked annually by the California Department of Fish and Game for sport fishing. The Brook Char was also originally stocked but now has become self-sustaining, and reproduces naturally in springs found on the eastern side of the lake. Golden Shiner is a bait fish minnow that was likely placed in the lake by anglers who left their remaining bait behind in the lake.[22]

The fish feed on zooplankton and insects; the fish are then eaten by predators around the lake, especially osprey.[3]

Reptiles and amphibians around the lake, including the Rough-skinned Newt (Taricha granulosa), the Cascades Frog (Rana cascadae) and the Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) feed as well on insects and young fish.[23]

Many mammals can be found around the lake and in the adjacent wilderness area, national forest, and parks. These include Black Bear (Ursus americanus), Blacktail Deer (Odocoileus hemionus), River otter (Lutra canadensis), and Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus).[24]

Notes

Vorlage:Reflist

References

  • Bowen, Ann, John Pallister, and A. Bowe: Advanced geography for AQA specification A. Heinemann Educational Publishers, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-435-35282-2.
  • David L. Durham: California's geographic names: A gazetteer of historic and modern names of the state. Quill Driver Books, Clovis, California 1998, ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
  • Will A. Marlow: California sketches. Editor Publishing, Cincinnati 1900, LOC control no. 00001469.
  • Marc J. Soares: 100 classic hikes in northern California:. The Mountaineers Books, Seattle 2000, ISBN 0-89886-702-9.


  1. ↑ USFS site accessed 2008-01-14.
  2. ↑ Wilderness Area site accessed 2008-01-14.
  3. ↑ a b Fauna accessed 2008-01-16.
  4. ↑ Shasta Guide to wildflowers accessed 2008-01-20.
  5. ↑ Flora accessed 2008-01-14.
  6. ↑ a b c d Castle Lake Limnological Research Station site accessed 2008-01-14.
  7. ↑ Visit Siskiyou site accessed 2008-01-20
  8. ↑ David L. Durham: California's geographic names: A gazetteer of historic and modern names of the state. Quill Driver Books, Clovis, California 1998, ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
  9. ↑ Shasta Guide accessed 2008-01-20.
  10. ↑ Will A. Marlow: California sketches. Editor Publishing, Cincinnati 1900, LOC control no. 00001469.
  11. ↑ Waterfalls West site accessed 2008-01-08.
  12. ↑ Mt. Shasta area hikes accessed 2008-01-20.
  13. ↑ Research Station site accessed 2008-01-20
  14. ↑ Marc J. Soares: 100 classic hikes in northern California:. The Mountaineers Books, Seattle 2000, ISBN 0-89886-702-9, S. 104.
  15. ↑ Little Castle Lake trail site accessed 20008-01-20.
  16. ↑ Vorlage:Coor at dms elev. Vorlage:Convert Little Castle Lake. In: Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior; (englisch).
  17. ↑ Vorlage:Coor at dms elev. Vorlage:Convert Heart Lake. In: Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior; (englisch).
  18. ↑ Vorlage:Coor at dms elev. Vorlage:Convert Mount Bradley. In: Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior; (englisch).
  19. ↑ Castle Crags State Park site accessed 2008-01-20.
  20. ↑ a b c Bowen, Ann, John Pallister, and A. Bowe: Advanced geography for AQA specification A. Heinemann Educational Publishers, Oxford 2001, ISBN 0-435-35282-2, S. 134.
  21. ↑ a b c d cirque formation accessed 2008-01-16.
  22. ↑ a b Fish accessed 2008-01-16.
  23. ↑ Reptiles accessed 2008-01-16.
  24. ↑ Mammals accessed 2008-01-16.
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