While our friends continued to Redwood National Park, we took a side trip to Redding, CA to get a repair done on the motorhome. Redding,CA was not on our original agenda for this trip, but we enjoyed our visit here.


Redding has mountains all around, miles of hiking and biking trails, a river running through it, and national parks nearby—what is there not to like???  The weather cooperated and we enjoyed temperatures in the 70’s.

Sundial Bridge

After parking the motorhome at the Sacramento River RV Park, we drove the car to the Sundial Bridge. The bicycle and pedestrian bridge spams the Sacramento River and forms a large sundial.  It was completed in 2004 and has become iconic for Redding.  The support tower of the bridge forms a mast that points due north at 42 degrees and serves as a gnomon (the part of the sundial that casts a shadow).  The shadow is cast on the north bank of the river and is exactly accurate only on June 20 or June 21 (the summer solstice). The tip of the shadow moves approximately one foot per minute.

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Sacramento River Trail

This trail runs along the banks of the Sacramento River and has stunning views of the river and nearby mountains. We rode 5.96 miles along the river near the Sundial bridge on Sunday.  On Monday we rode another 5.22 miles on the Shasta Dam portion of the trail.  The trail by the Shasta Dam is part of the Rails to Trails network.  The railroad track had to be moved when the dam was built.

Sacremento River Trail 2

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Shasta Dam

When completed in 1945 it was the second tallest dam in the United States (Hoover Dam in Nevada was the tallest) and was also the tallest man-made structure in California.  Now there are seven taller dams in the US.  The Dam created Shasta Lake for long-term water storage and helps with flood control and hydroelecticity.

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The beautiful view of the valley along the Sacramento River looking downriver from the dam

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Shasta Lake, the largest reservoir in California

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Taking care of business and more….

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Big Hat getting his new exhaust pipe

Tom and Ben went to Water Works Park while I went to the eye doctor to get my eyes checked.  The doctor wrote me a prescription for some steroid drops and I had to go to SIX pharmacies before I could find one that had the medicine ind stock.

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Meanwhile Big Hat was fixed and I had my eye medicine.  We headed out of town for our next top—Crater Lake National Park.

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Trip Statistics

  • Miles driven in the motorhome -  2,938; miles driven in the car 775; total miles driven 3,713 miles
  • We camped at the Sacramento RV Campground for $49.50 night. Total trip campground cost of $703.16
  • We purchased gas today fo4 $3.24 a gallon in Oregon which was was $1.25 cheaper than in Redding.  Trip total = $1,554