Redding, California

We spent a week in Redding, California, which is in the northern, central part of the state. It is a beautiful area, with mountains surrounding it, including Mount Shasta that looms in the background at over 14,000 ft. Little did we know that it gets very hot in this valley during the summer. During our stay, it was from 101 to 106 degrees on three of the days!!!!! We were told, however, that at times it has gone up to 123 degrees! Glad we missed that! Some of our time was spent trying to figure out how to stay cool. Our RV air conditioner had all it could do to perform when the temps were really rising!

On one of the cooler days, we were able to bike ride along the Sacramento River. At the beginning of the bike trail is the Sundial Bridge which spans 700 feet across the river. It is made of metal, glass, and concrete, and the end pylon acts as the world's largest sundial! The bridge was designed by Spanish architect, Santiago Calatrava. Quite spectacular!

On one of the hotter days, we decided to drive to Lassen Volcanic National Park. It was much cooler there, and in fact, not all of the roads were open yet due to snow! The park is at the southern end of the Cascade Range, which is a chain of active, dormant, and extinct volcanoes that stretches to British Columbia and includes Mt. Shasta. Lassen Peak is one of the many volcanoes found around the Pacific Ocean in what is known as the "Ring of Fire". This volcano last erupted in 1915, and luckily, no one was killed thanks to one homesteader warning the others. After 80 years, the "Devastated Area" around the volcano is sparse but does have new tree and vegetation growth. We also were able to see the remains of a rock avalanche that occurred 350 years ago and collapsed the Chaos Crags volcanic dome. The rocks were said to have traveled into the valley at 110 mph!

Shasta Dam is the 2nd largest dam in the country after the Grand Coulee in Washington State. We both thought the largest dam was the Hoover, which is really the 4th largest. The size is determined by the volume of cement used to build the dam. Shasta Dam was built in the late 30's and is a major source of water for California, including Los Angeles. A tour of the dam was offered, and we were able to go down an elevator 750 ft to the bottom and have a great view of the spillway and also the giant turbine room that provides electricity to the grid.

Shasta Lake was created by Shasta Dam. Beneath the Lake are some old pioneer towns, that were flooded on purpose when the dam was completed. We took a boat ride to the far side of the lake to tour the Shasta Caverns. These caverns were discovered in the late 1800's by a native Indian tracking a bobcat. They were not commercialized until the 1950's. Once across the lake, we had to take a bus ride 800 ft up a mountain to go into the caverns. What a view of the lake and the surrounding area from there!

"The Giant Orange Restaurant" was recommended for breakfast. Once there, we discovered that the Giant Orange was opened in 1946 and was one of 30 orange juice stands along historic Route 99, which parallels I-5. As far as we know it is the only Giant Orange left, although the restaurant now serves not only juice, but good food.