💚❄️🏔Directions to our prayer place on Kohn Yahmahnee (Snowy Mountain in the Mountain Maidu language):
From Redding, drive out Hwy 44 to where it meets Hwy 89, then 1.2 miles further uphill on Hwy 44 to the Eskimo Hill Snow Park, and then 0.8 miles downhill to a large turn-out on the left side of the road. (Note how Hwy 44 goes on Hwy 89 until Hwy 89 goes into Lassen National Park.)
From Redding: 1 hour out Hwy 44 to the intersection with Hwy 89, continue uphill 1.2 miles to the Eskimo Hill Snow Park on the ridge, and downhill 0.8 miles into the top of the Hat Creek watershed, to a pull-out on the left. From Burney, up Hwy 299 to Hwy 89, south along Hat Creek, and on uphill past the intersection with Hwy 44, to Eskimo Hill Snow Park at the top of the watershed. Turn around here and go back 0.8 miles to a pull-out on left.
A large turn-out is straight ahead here, on the left side of the road, with the pair of two tall trees marking the spot, 0.8 miles downhill from the Eskimo Hill Snow Park on Hwy 44.On the right side of the highway is where we find old bulldozer tracks for us to follow up the hill to the south, towards where the altar is. I left Stones and Pinecones to mark where to leave when the tracks end, and where we continue going straight uphill towards the flat area up top and the altar.Here’s what we see when we first get to the flat area on top. The path to follow is straight ahead, to the left of the center tree
Below, the first photo shows the way to the entrance, the next looks into the prayer circle, the last looks north from within it.
The path between the small tree and the rock marks the entrance to the natural circle amidst the pines.Crossing through, the curved stick directs us to enter on the right, on the close side of that little stump, and then circle around counterclockwise, until we get around to the far side, and turn to look back where we came from — to the north, towards Mount ShastaThe pine cone points directly towards Ako Yet (Mount Shasta), at 330 degrees north — as shown in the second photo, from where I sat in prayer with the sage from Grandma Aggie’s plant. I left some there.These two overlapping photos show what we see when we turn around and start walking south past the prayer circle. The trail will curve around to the right, and then we see this: The first photo is to the left, the second to the right,We can see the tree with the long shadow in the middle where they overlap. At the beginning of this area is where I found the deer bones pointed directly at 330 degrees north. Here we will be able to find lots of little fir trees who could use a thinning for Christmas.
Here’s the path that leads further along the flat area, going towards the top of a little hill where there should be a view of Lassen Peak.
