A close-up view of jagged rock formations at the pinnacle of Castle Crags State Park, in Shasta-Trinity National Forest south of Dunsmuir, California. Soaring above the upper Sacramento River Valley are the sky-scraping spires of granite called the Castle Crags. From the lofty ramparts, the hiker can look down on forested slopes and up at magnificent snow-covered Mt. Shasta.

The Castle Crags were formed in much the same manner as nearby Mt. Shasta and the other peaks of the Cascade Range—by volcanic activity some 200 million years ago. For the last million years, the Crags have been subjected to the forces of wind, rain, ice and even some small glaciers, which have shaped the granite into its distinctive shapes. Rising beside the spikey peaks is a round one, Castle Dome, which many mountaineers liken to Yosemite’s Half Dome.

In 1855, the territory below the Crags was the site of a struggle between local native people and settlers. The locals, armed only with bows and arrows, were driven from their land in a one-sided battle that was chronicled by Joaquin Miller, “poet of the High Sierra.” Photo by Carol Highsmith, 2012.