The entire cliff face is from a time further in the past when it was formed from the slowly moving lava pushed from Mount Shasta. The cave is formed from lava flows, not the action of eroding water. The mist and moss covered rocks are calming, a place of respite for the traveler and once a secure sleeping place for the highwayman. Mount Shasta rises in the distance, as the trail pushes beyond the fall to a vista point with the mountain and the roaring Sacramento River below. More difficult to find in Bart’s day, the area is now a short stroll from the road. Today a small parking lot, off of the Dunsmuir/Siskiyou Avenue exit is the start of the trailhead providing a short walk to the river grotto. He often said, “Please.”Īmong his hiding places, was the small cave at Hedge Creek. Appearing on foot, with flour sack over his head, a man with elegant speech and exacting matters would point his shotgun and ask for the strong box to be handed over. Many took place along the Siskiyou Trail, established fifty years before by Alexander McLeod. He had disappeared in the West, no one knowing his fate.Ī string of robberies, involving Wells Fargo stagecoaches began to occur in northern California and southern Oregon. This trip changed his destiny, as a confrontation with the Wells Fargo & Company led him to write his wife a letter, which gave no details of what happened, but promised that he would have his revenge. He left for Idaho and Montana, still convinced that gold was in his future. His own farm was no more appealing to him than his parent’s property. He cast his eyes back to Illinois, returning to his family. Though wounded in the Battle of Vicksburg, he stayed in the army until 1865. The Civil War drew him into service, where he rose to first sergeant. Alone, Bowles would spend two fruitless years mining before abandoning his dreams, and moving to Illinois where he married and soon was raising four children on a farm. David and Robert both died within months. The second trip proved more tragic than the first. But Bowles left again with his brother David, and another brother, Robert, believing his dreams could still be found in the goldfields of California. After only a year, the brothers returned empty handed. Born in England, he longed for a more exciting life than the family farm in New York, which his family purchased upon arriving in the United States.

Travelling with his brothers David and James, the West was a lure, which enchanted him his whole life. As many early settlers, he searched for the illusive golden nuggets and powder which fueled the California Gold Rush. Visitors hike the short trail down from the parking lot, to stand behind the falls, unaware they occupy the space used as a hideout by the outlaw Black Bart.īart travelled to California as Charles Earl Bowles. As the flow pours into the creek, down the steep face of rock, underneath a wide, shallow cave cuts into the mountainside. Over the hill from McCloud, at the northern end of Dunsmuir is a beautiful ribbon of water called Hedge Creek Falls. Once you get to the viewing platform that overhangs the river, scramble up the hillside to catch this fabulous glimpse of Mt.

McCloud Blog Note: The photo featured on our homepage for this story is actually the “payoff” view from the end of the trail.

Hedge creek falls