Redding, California

Redding is the county seat of Shasta County, CA.  Situated along the Siskiyou Trail, Redding was a trade and travel route connecting California's Central Valley and the Pacific Northwest.  Later, when the Southern Pacific Railroad built its rail line through the Sacramento Valley, it decided that the cost of making a small westerly detour to reach the preexisting mining town of Shasta was not in its interest. Instead the railroad routed the tracks through an area with the inauspicious name of Poverty Flats, and what was to become the town of Redding was born.

It was incorporated in 1887 with 600 people. By 1910, Redding had a population of 3,572 supported by a significant mineral extraction industry, principally  copper and iron.  However, with the decline of these industries, which also produced significant amounts of pollution damaging to local agriculture, the population dropped to 2,962 in 1920. By 1930 the population had recovered to 4,188 and then boomed during the 1930s with the construction of nearby Shasta Dam.

For the majority of our trip we have been blessed with sunny weather or rain during the night.   Well, our luck finally ran out as we encountered rain for two days and nights. 

Driving to Redding we were in a one lane construction area behind a truck hauling garlic in two open containers.  Wow, did we enjoy smelling that fragrance.

Tonight Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) begins.  Hope all of our friends who celebrate it have a blessed, peaceful, healthy, fun year ahead!  As there are no Temples or Synagogues in the area we’ll just do the best we can in our thoughts and prayers ourselves!

Looks like rain to me!

We saw a rare sight on the return trip to the campground, a beautiful huge double rainbow. 

Double Rainbow

The next morning we found another good recommendation from Trip Advisor for breakfast!  Savory Spoon was voted #1 and their profits go to a charity. From there we headed to the Sundial Bridge which we saw when we were in the area four years ago.  It is a one-of-a-kind glass decked pedestrian bridge and serves as an incredible entrance to Redding’s Sacramento River NationalRecreation Trail.  Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish architect, designed this bridge.  It is the first bridge of its kind in the U.S. and is the tallest working sundial in the world!  The massive 217’ pylon leans due north and functions as the gnomon of a sundial, casting its giant shadow on a garden-bordered dial plate at the bridge’s north end.  The bridge was built here over the Sacramento River because there were the best gravel deposits within a 100-mile radius of the proposed dam.  It took 12 years from conception to completion (1992-2004)

The bridge lit up in the evening

The bridge lit up in the evening

We purchased tickets so we could tour the Turtle Bay Museum, walk through the Parrot Playhouse, see Paul Bunyan’s Forest Camp, walk through the Wildlife Woods, stroll Turtle Bay’s McConnell Arboretum & Botanical Gardens and Nursery, and go through the gift shop.

Quite a few of the areas were closed (reptiles and butterflies) but we saw a hawk, an eagle, a skunk, a raccoon, other birds, etc., but the highlight was a parrot playhouse where we entered an enclosed area and the lorikeets (small parrots native to Australia) flew all around, even landing on us.  They were very colorful and it was lots of fun having this unusual experience.

There was an area with an old train engine and a turtle pond.  Everything there is a learning experience for both adults and children.  They have an area for children to play, a maze teaching about the trunk of a tree (Paul Bunyan’s Forest Camp), another where you try and build a structure in running water to divert the water.  We then walked across the bridge again to go through the Botanical Gardens.  It was rather disappointing because there wasn’t much in bloom and most items weren’t labeled.  

They really enjoyed Mike feeding them leaves

Really beautiful birds