Halfway between two of our National Parks, Lassen Volcanic and Redwoods, it is now time to stop for the work week again. I have come from the south entrance of Lassen Volcanic, so it is just another 50 miles down Highway 36 to Red Bluff, California. I have found a campground on my Allstays app that looks to be in a large “green space” along the Sacramento River, yet it appears to be in a coverage area. Sycamore Grove is a National Forest Service campground just two miles outside of town along the Sacramento River.
I am in the midst of a heat wave along the Sacramento River. Being from the south, I always envisioned northern California as having near-perfect weather. I am surprised to learn that this stretch of the state reaches high temperatures up in the triple digits in the summer! It is forecasted to be in the high 90’s this week. But the main difference between the highs in the south is that it at least cools down at night here. Fortunately, I only have to run the AC for about two hours during the hottest part of the day.
There are as many things that I like about this park as those that I don’t like. Since I didn’t pay the fee to book in advance through recreation.gov, I can only stay two consecutive nights without moving, unless my space is not reserved during that time. It is $25 per night for water and electric, but there is no dump station on site. And the campground has showers, but they must be plugged with quarters. My site backs up to a river, but there is some sort of noisy machinery going on, so I can’t hear the sounds of the river. And the worst part….my Verizon signal SUCKS here!
But the campground is shady and seems cool during the heat wave. The host next to me is a very friendly and helpful person. There is a flower garden and greenhouse at the park visitor’s center a few steps from the campground. And I have made good use of the lovely 4 mile hike and bike trail with a view of Lassen Peak. There is also a serene pond at the end of the nature trail with a cacophony of lilting song birds, chirping crickets, and croaking frogs. So I am on the fence of whether to stay or move an hour north to Redding, CA mid-week. I could pull out my more powerful Yagi antenna, but if I move, I will be an hour closer to the Redwood National Park come the weekend.
But the tipping point in my decision is……I want to ride the Sundial Bridge! Designed by the famous architect Santiago Calatrava, who is also designing the World Trade Center PATH train station in New York, it is “art you can walk on!”
So I decide to move north an hour during my lunch break. 😉 The Redding RV Park is right off I-5, and offers a Passport America discount. It is your basic line-up of rigs all pointing the same direction, but it is very clean, well maintained, with friendly staff and convenient location. The only negative I can say about it is a little freeway noise if you are a light sleeper.
The Sundial Bridge is a “cantilever spar cable-stayed bridge” that is a pedestrian walkway spanning the Sacramento River. The bridge was built to span the water without interfering with the salmon beds in the shallow water.
Santiago Calatrava is from Spain, so I recognize the use of the broken tile that is so prevalent in Barcelona, particularly all throughout Park Guell, designed by Gaudi. The base of the bridge is covered in translucent glass blocks that give off a beautiful turquoise glow at night.
Redding has one of the most enviable bike paths of any city I have visited since Little Rock. The path is all paved, two lane, and runs alongside the Sacramento River for 18 miles.
I would have loved to have ridden it in its entirety to the Shasta Dam, but had to turn at the suspension bridge in order to make it back before dark. It reached the upper 90’s this day, so I had to wait until almost nightfall to enjoy it, but what a gorgeous sunset ride!
Yes… the main difference is the cooling down at night. In our South… and especially in Texas… 100 degrees at midnight! don’t like it.
Mt. Shasta is so gorgeous ~ I always loved seeing it when I lived in San Francisco and would take weekend jaunts here and there … lived there four years and never thought I’d leave. That’s when I learned that i should never say never.
love it… he jumped into life and never touched bottom… wow
gorgeous bridge, I missed that too ~ gorgeous pictures and writing ~ as always
What a glorious sunset ride and such a beautiful piece of art is that bridge. I was surprised to hear that your Verizon service wasn’t good at the first campground after it looked like it was in the service area. Must make it very hard for you to know where you can camp to work. Do you use the purchased version of All Stays? You seem to like it a lot.
This one had me thinking “battle of the cameras” (while cheating by looking at the exif records to see if I guessed right on model vs quality – a game I sometimes play with myself). I am happy to say I was spot-on while identifying the Nikon DSLR shot but dead wrong judging another favorite that popped out of the trusty Elf. So you are doing a great job in proving what every seasoned professional photographer says and who knows anything, it’s not about the camera but about the photographer. Congratulations on squeezing so many spiffy shots out of so many cameras in this one post. Great job! 🙂
We had a wonderful stay in Redding last fall. Salmon were running and we too enjoyed the bike path. It was a surprising pleasant stop for us.
Know the area, stayed in that RV Park but knew nothing about that fabulous bridge. thanks for sharing.
Great shot looking upwards through the dandelion. A bit too hot for me with those high temperatures.
Hi, Carolyn — Thanks for the nice compliment. Yes, I agree. Cooling down at night is like a “reset” that helps one make it through the heat! But in TX, you rarely get a break until September!
Sherry — Usually I find the coverage app to be very reliable…and the signal was there, just not strong enough to push through the big data files I have to do for work. Yes, I love the Allstays App! I did purchase. I think it was like $6, maybe? I like it because it not only gives me campgrounds, but also a quick at-a-glance view on the map of everything from Walmarts (color-coded as okay to stay or not) to road grades. And you can filter out what you don’t need…very handy when I don’t have a navigational partner!
Don — Funny to think you are checking my camera usage. It has been very active after the little elfie’s zoom focus quit working. I am “camera-challenged.” One is too wide. The other is not wide enough. And the one that does it all is too big and heavy to carry while hiking. And that’s not to mention the battle of the numbering systems on three different SD cards. UGH!! I need another new camera!!
Lisa — I was quite surprised by Redding, too! I didn’t expect to find it so easy to get around, and very friendly town!
Contessa — I love that you stayed in the same park! One of these days, our timing is gonna be better!
Dave — Thanks for the nice compliment. I wish I had used something next to the dandelion for size perspective, because it was the biggest one I had ever seen! Like baseball sized! Too hot for me too. Nice to be on the cool coast now…