Conquering Castle Peak 2025

We donned our spikes on our boots to give us better traction and started out promptly at 8am to hit the still snow covered trail. Blue skies and sunshine were on us all day with the occasional wisp of wind at times.

The snow was starting to become even more soft and slushy as anticipated as we started out. Within 30 minutes of the hike everyone was shedding layers. I was down to my t-shirt and pants and perspiring. It felt good to loose my top layer.

We started to string out along the trail making our way up to Castle Pass which is about 1.5 miles from the parking lot.

Four of us waited there to allow for the others to catch up. There was still another 1.5 miles over more of a mix of soft slushy snow and open trail ahead of us.

As we all reunited together at the pass, 3 of the hikers decided that this hike was a little too much and decided to take a break and then return back to the cars while the rest of us pressed on.

The four of us took on the rest of the trail up to the peak. It still was a bit of a slog but it truly paid off when we made it out of the snow to open trail.

The views were incredible and many pictures were taken along the hike. We were also fortunate enough to see our first Marmot of the season in the rocks along the trail!

We made it to the base of the peak at about 1030ish then we began the scramble up!

To make it to the very top of Castle Peak you must climb/scramble up a good 50-60 feet with decent hand holds to make it. I would say this is a good class 2-3 scramble. If you are not familiar or comfortable with scrambling this might be a challenge for you.

We all took are time climbing to the top and enjoyed the views. Many pictures were taken and the scenery enjoyed.

Then the downclimb back to the base for a well deserved break and snacks!

I was under a time constraint so this is where I split from the others to make it back to the cars by 1245pm. The three remaining hikers went on to Basin Peak while I retraced my steps back. The others who took Basin Peak made it back to the cars by 430pm.

Along my decent I ran into a few other hikers but for the most part I had the trails to myself. But I was stopping briefly to take a few pictures and enjoying the solitude. I did catch up to the three who turned back earlier. They were taking their time getting back to the cars and enjoying their time.

In total for me it was just 6.23 miles with just over 2000 in elevation gained in about 4:30.

It was a great day to be out at Castle Peak with a great group of hikers from the Bay Area Hikers group! If you have any questions about my hikes, feel free to message me and I’ll tell you more. If you’re interested in following my hikes, you can find me on my Facebook page, Jason’s Hiking Adventures, Bay Area Hikers, Instagram @jasonshikingadventures, Social Hiker, and AllTrails. I have posted a link to the route we took below. Thanks for reading!

https://www.alltrails.com/explore/recording/nevada-county-hiking-1673841