Pit River California



The Pit River Plateau in the Shasta Mountains is a peaceful, relaxing place.   We went to the location and found not only a place for personal reflection, but also for all kinds of geological reflection.  Looking at the beautiful landscapes we could find ourselves and enjoy the wondering streams eroding the mountain and moving ever purposeful toward the Pacific ocean. This area has been known for some time as you can see in the photo from 1904.  The Pit River drains a sparsely populated volcanic highlands area, passing through the south end of the Cascade Range in a deep canyon northeast of Redding.  

I could not help but want to know about the volcanic activities here.  When was the volcano here and active, was this a former large fault or was the entire plateau a former caldera?    This would help explain how and why the large plateau was formed and if the Shasta mountains emerged fully from the potentially active Mount Shasta. 

I could not help but wonder about the sedimentary activities when was this area underwater, and what had left so much sediment on top of the volcanic evidence, that was now eroded by the wandering stream?   Had there been a connection to a great body of water here? 

Last what was the glacial activity in this area.   Nearby, the Whitney Glacier is the longest, and the Hotlum is the most voluminous glacier in the state of California.  What role had glacial activity played in the formation of the area, and the oldest known settlement of humans in the area nearly 7,000 years ago?  

This was a fantastical place to visit and imagine the past in so many timelines of glaciers, water, and volcanic activities. 

Pit River Falls, photographed by Cloudsley Rutter, c. 1904

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