Cory and I planned a road trip to the redwoods for our anniversary and left the second half of our trip open-ended. We had talked about going to Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks, but they were largely closed to cars due to snow and would add 8 hours drive each way, so that seemed a poor choice. Lassen Volcanic NP seemed promising as it was more on the way home and we could stay in Redding and save ourselves so much driving. Then we researched it. The park was only accessible to one visitor center and beyond that it was all foot traffic as there was so much snow. We had brought snow shoes and crampons along, but the park looked large enough that we felt we would miss so much of it if left to only what we could walk to. Maybe it would have been ok, but instead of a maybe we went for a sure thing. We decided Crater Lake. Already in Redding,CA we were on track to go there so we decided to see some more sights while we were able. We were cutting our trip short by a day or two by not going to Sequoia, after all.
Leaving the Redwoods we stopped at Chapman’s Gem and Mineral Shop. Though their displays are worn, the pieces they have on display are very cool and we bought a few goodies including petrified redwood as a souvenir!
Elephant bird egg!
We got petrified redwood as a souvenir.
The drive through national forests to Redding was varied and pretty. First it was all green field covered mountains with pockets of forest, then drier high desert mountains. We stopped for a quick jaunt up a viewpoint when we saw a pull out surrounded by beautiful scenery.
Then we got to Redding. In our hotel we saw a couple of paintings of a wild looking bridge, so my husband looked it up. It was the Sundial Bridge on the Sacramento River there in Redding. It is one of the world’s largest functional sundials- telling time from 11am to 3 pm. After that the shadow is too long to be read.
The bridge and sculpture were by the same artist.
View of Lake Shasta on our way to Mt Shasta.
Driving away headed toward Crater Lake we had good views of Mt Shasta for a long time. So many funky angles on that mountain! It was fun to get out and be up on the mountain at such a high elevation too. The Cascades are just so cool!
