Mount Shasta towers 14,162 feet (4,317 meters) above sea level in northern California. It rises almost 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above the low mountains on which it rests. Mount Shasta is the southernmost of the great volcanoes in the Cascade Range between northern California and the Canadian border. Successive lava flows over thousands of years made Mount Shasta. The mountain is not considered an active volcano, but it has a hot spring near its summit.
A newer and smaller volcanic cone, called Shastina, lies on the western slopes of Shasta, about 2,500 feet (762 meters) below the summit. It has an almost perfectly preserved summit crater. Five small valley glaciers are found high on the sides of the peak, above 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
