The Mount Shasta City Park to Downtown Greenway is both an existing public trail that goes from the Mt. Shasta City Park and a long term vision that will eventually create a multi-use urban trail going from the City Park to downtown Mt. Shasta City. Future extensions would even connect the trail to Spring Hill and down to Lake Siskiyou.
Today, the initial part of the trail has been completed. You can access the trail at Mt. Shasta City Park and walk through meadows and forested wetlands, along Wagon Creek and Kingston Ditch. The lower part of this trail crosses Kingston Meadow on land held by Siskiyou Land Trust and joins Kingston Road on private property. There’s no public parking at the Kingston Road trailhead, so the best trailhead access is at the City Park, with abundant parking, a kids’ playground, picnic facilities and the famous Headwaters Spring.
This initial phase of the Mount Shasta City Park to Downtown Greenway was constructed through 2015 and 2016, by a consortium of groups, including the Mt. Shasta Trail Association, Mt. Shasta Rotary, Mountain Wheelers, Mountain Runners, the Mt. Shasta Parks & Recreation District, and (of course!) the Siskiyou Land Trust.
The Mount Shasta City Park to Downtown Greenway provides outdoor recreation experiences for walkers, runners, and bicyclists. Along the trail are opportunities for nature study, appreciation, and protection of meadows, wetlands, and forested ecosystems. Ongoing brush clearing efforts, stewardship and community use of the area reduces the potential for illegal camping and misuse of this valuable headwaters landscape.
Siskiyou Land Trust holds a key piece of land that makes the Mount Shasta Downtown to City Park Greenway possible.
A 5-acre piece of property, located at the end of Kingston Road, was a foreclosed parcel purchased by a community consortium of Greenway proponents. The land, which was once slated for condominium development, is now retained as open space that will facilitate the Greenway. The purchase was funded by contributions by the partners, while title for the land will initially be held by the Land Trust.
The long-term goal of the consortium is to establish a 5-mile greenway network through Mt. Shasta and extending to Lake Siskiyou that provides safe off-street multi-use trail linkages, incorporates streams, wetlands, and open-space, restores fish and wildlife habitat, mitigates urban storm-water runoff, and benefits the local economy.
The first phase of the project, now complete, is the public trail described above. The next is to connect this trail to downtown Mt. Shasta with an 8 foot wide paved, multi-use trail crossing a variety of land ownerships. Future extensions would connect the trail to Spring Hill, to the proposed Mill Pond Park at the old Roseburg Mill site, and eventually to Lake Siskiyou which is already circumnavigated by a recreational trail.
The finished trail will provide an accessible recreational pathway for walkers, runners, bicyclists; nature study of meadows and wetlands; urban open space retention; and safe access to the City Park.
Current Status. The consortium continues to work on securing funding, designing and implementing the project in phases.
