Page 112 - 2024/2025 Travel Guide to CALIFORNIA

and horseback trips. To the north, the Klamath 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.
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.
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.
The Great Outdoors
Mount Shasta is irresistible to climbers; in
MUST
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• 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
• OTHER-WORLDLY A visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park is packed with surprises. Who knew this geological marvel framed millennia ago offers hikers trails that lead past steaming fumaroles, and boiling mud pots where wildlife pops up unexpectedly—it is an underrated gem. Backcountry camping trips are possible for the adventurous soul.
• nps.gov/lavo/index.htm
• 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/experience/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
BUMPASS HELL IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, above; Lava Beds National Monument, Valentine Cave entrance, below; winter fun at Chester Lake, opposite.
LARRY HABEGGER; KENNETH INGHAM/VLSB. OPPOSITE: VLSB PHOTOS