The Name

Goosenest gets its name from its looks. A crater at the top of the peak makes it look like a nest. Since it's a pretty big "nest" and divides the path of migrating geese, it is apt that "goose" was selected as the other part of the toponym. The crater, however, is not always obvious. It takes just the right lighting conditions for the crater to stand out.

Geology

Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak are part of the California Cascades. Mount Shasta is the northernmost section of the two with the Klamath River and Pit River forming its boundaries. While Mount Shasta is, no doubt, the dominant peak, there are other parts to this section as well. Goosenest is the major peak in that portion of the range north of Mount Shasta.

Eagle Rock, Willow Creek Mountain, and Herd Peak are part of the High Cascades and show up as the purplish brown section in the center of the image using bands 2/3, 1, and 4. The blue section with the light blue peak is Goosenest (close-up to above right). Goosenest was formed during the Quaternary, as was Mount Shasta, The Whaleback, Deer Mountain, and Little Deer Mountain; the rest of this portion of the High Cascades was formed during the Pliocene epoch of the Tertiary.

The lowest left portion of the above picture is Quaternary alluvium from Little Shasta River. Just above this (the lower part of Table Rock) is Western Cascade andesite from the Miocene. The cap on Table Rock is basalt from the Pliocene. Goosenest itself is andesite with some pyroclastic materials from the Quaternary.

Satellite and Aerial Images

One of the most interesting composite images of Goosenest that I came up with used bands 2/3, 1, and 4. Shasta Valley is on the west and Butte Valley is to the east. They show up as light blue with orange and red irrigated fields. The reservoirs are magenta in color. The large reservoirs are Copco Lake and Iron Gate Reservoir. The Klamath River flows west from Iron Gate. Just opposite the confluence of Cottonwood Creek and Klamath River is Black Mountain. The dark tip of the mountain is Western Cascade volcanics from the Tertiary and the base is landslide material formed during the Quaternary. Just to the southwest of Black Mountain is Paradise Craggy which is more vegetated (on the west slope) than the surrounding mountains as is indicated by the bright red. To the east of Black Mountain is Bogus Mountain which is also part of the Western Cascades.

Resources

Campbell, John. Map Use and Analysis. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Publishers, 1991.

Harris, Stephen L. Fire Mountains of the West: The Cascade and Mono Lake Volcanoes. Missoula, Montana: Mountain Publishing Company, 1988.

Klamath National Forest. Transportation System of Goosenest Ranger District (map). Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, 1994.

Maptech. TopoScout (CD) Version 2.01. Greenland, New Hampshire: Maptech, 1997.

Miesse, William C. Mount Shasta: An Annotated Bibliography. Weed, California: College of the Siskiyous, 1993.

Rice, Richard B. et. al. The Elusive Eden: A New History of California. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.

United States Forest Service. Klamath National Forest: America's Great Outdoors (map). United States Department of Agriculture, 1997.

Wagner, D.L. and G.J. Saucedo. Geologic Map of the Weed Quadrangle (Scale 1:250,000). Division of Mines and Geology, 1987.