Located just west of Interstate 5, between the towns of Castella and Dunsmuir, Castle Crags is today a popular tourist stop along the highway.

Although the Northern Coast Ranges of northwestern California consist largely of rocks of volcanic and sedimentary origin, granite bodies (plutons) intruded many parts of the area during the Jurassic period.

Situated along an ancient trade and travel route known as the Siskiyou Trail, Castle Crags has witnessed dramatic events.

Strained relationships between 1850s California Gold Rush miners and the local native Indian populations resulted in the 1855 Battle of Castle Crags, in which the poet Joaquin Miller was wounded, and which he later described in an essay of the same name.

Many features of the Castle Crags Wilderness are considered sacred to Native Americans including all of the streams, the Sacramento River, and the region's abundance of natural springs.

Thousands of miners invaded the Castle Crags Wilderness when false rumors of the fabled "Lost Cabin Mine" began to circulate in the region.

[citation needed] The Castle Rock Mineral Spring was one of the earliest land resources seized after a genocidal campaign that eliminated Native Americans from this region.