Page 127 - 2022-2023 Travel Guide to California

MUST
SEE,
DO
• SUNDIAL BRIDGE Spanish architect Santiago
Calatrava’s now-iconic cantilever pedestrian span
across the Sacramento River is the centerpiece of the
worthwhile Turtle Bay Exploration Park in Redding.
• turtlebay.org/sundial-bridge
• SUMMIT FEVER With the help of a local
guide, fit beginners can reach the 14,179-foot-high
summit of Mount Shasta via its classic Avalanche
Gulch route.
• shastaguides.com
• swsmtns.com
• CRYSTAL PERSUASION Feel the meta-
physical vibes of Mount Shasta City by shopping
for a Lemurian Seed Crystal at The Crystal Room.
But be warned that they won’t let it go home with
you unless it’s a “good energy match.”
• crystalsmtshasta.com
• MEN IN TIGHTS Stretching 11 miles from
the southern Cascades to the Central Valley,
Chico’s sylvan Bidwell Park stood in for Sherwood
Forest in 1938’s “The Adventures of Robin Hood”
staring Errol Flynn.
• visitcalifornia.com/attraction/bidwell-park
• ROMANCE OF THE RAILS In Dunsmuir, a
classic old railroad town, rail buffs can inspect a
1927 Willamette steam locomotive, dine in a vin-
tage Pullman Club Car and bed down for the night
in a genuine caboose at the Railroad Park Resort.
• rrpark.com
INSIDER’S TIP
While hiking on MOUNT SHASTA,
keep an eye out for the
LEMURIANS, a race of psychically
advanced beings believed by
some to live in an enormous cave
inside the mountain. They are
said to speak excellent English,
with a “slight British accent.”
lemurianconnection.com
SUNDIAL BRIDGE at Turtle Bay, Redding, above; Lava Beds National Monument, Valentine Cave entrance,
below; Mount Shasta and Heart Lake, opposite.
and horseback trips. To the north, the Kla-
math Basin National Wildlife Refuge,
which extends into southern Oregon, is
part of the Pacific Flyway: In the fall its
skies are darkened by more than a million
migratory birds.
On the lower flanks of its namesake peak,
Mount Shasta City sports a main street lined
with New Age bookstores and shops selling
crystals said to have mystical powers. No
less an authority than James Hilton, author
of Lost Horizon, once claimed that the pretty
alpine hamlet of Weaverville, gateway to the
Trinity Alps, was the closest he’s ever come
to a real-life Shangri-La.
City & Town
For travelers, Redding was nothing more
than a pit stop along Interstate 5 until the
opening of the instantly iconic Sundial
Bridge across the Sacramento River in 2004.
The Great Outdoors
Mount Shasta is irresistible to climbers; in