The positive: excellent view of Shasta lake, great location to visit amazing waterfalls and natural swimming holes, glorious views of Mt Shasta and Castle Crags after a short drive, extremely convenient for the spectacular cave tour. Beautiful, clean house with high-end appliances, air conditioning, comfortable beds. Lack of internet was not too much of a problem due to the excellent cell coverage.
The negative: It was not stated in the description of the property that Highway 5 was highly visible from the deck and the sound so loud that we could not sit outside. It was difficult to sleep in the master bedroom due my noise sensitivity. The other bedrooms were quieter and restful. We received essentially no local information before checking in despite requesting it. I was not aware that 95% of the Whiskeytown lake area had been destroyed by wildfire in 2018 and that the beaches were not accessible, or looked burned out. It would have really helped if this had been mentioned to help us with planning - especially because without wifi in the house, planning alternative activities was more difficult.
A cautionary note for people visiting in the summer: We had to leave a day early due to the terrible Dixie fire smoke. The temperature was over 100 almost every day, and there were at least 2 wildfires raging near by at all times and we constantly had to plan activities to avoid smoke.