Sundial Bridge

One of the fairly nearby attractions that I had planned to visit was the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA. And even though I tried to schedule adventures at least two days of every week, I didn't get time to see everything. So I decided to see the bridge during one of the two trips I had to make to Malheur to haul all my junk.

And of course, I wanted the lighting good for pictures.  I first came past it in the dark, then in the early afternoon and finally made it to the bridge just before dawn.

The lighting makes for a gorgeous view at night

The floor is made of glass to let light pass to the river below to help spawning salmon

The bridge is part of a wonderful, thirty-five mile long, trail system that goes along the Sacramento River on both sides and takes one to the Shasta Dam.  Since it was too dark for pictures and since I had a ten hour drive still ahead of me, I decided to get in a little walk. I walked out for about one and a quarter miles. By this time it was light enough to read and I was reading the various trail signs. I got to one with a picture of eagles and a telescope next to it.  It told of an eagle's nest right there in urban Redding, CA.  I scanned the trees in front of me with the scope and found an eagle sitting on a nest, with a slough and an apartment complex in the background.

Almost sunrise over the Sacramento River.

It was rapidly getting light, so I worked my way back, only getting distracted by pictures a few times. Then I took pictures of the bridge from both sides of the river.  

Canada geese at sunrise on the Sacramento River

Early morning shot looking upstream to the Sundial Bridge

Just before lights out on the bridge

A closer view of the sundial

Beautiful geometry

View from the bridge of Mt. Shasta Bally and gulls

The bridge was built by Santiago Calatrava. He is both an architect and a sculptor.  The pictures of his work are breathtaking. So, if you are into beautiful architecture, check out his works.

But the bridge is not a stand-alone attraction.  It is part of the Turtle Bay Exploration Park, which also has a museum and the McConnell Arboretum and Botantical Gardens. I couldn't wait until the museum opened but saw a man opening the gates to the garden.  I asked him if I could visit the gardens and he said yes.  So I got to see it in beautiful morning light, rather than after 9:00 A.M. This is a very young garden and it was also mostly dormant but looks like it has great possibilities to show people how to have a beautiful, but sustainable garden without using too much water or herbicides and fertilizers.

And this is a very birdy place and should be particular wonderful during spring migration. Besides the nesting eagle,  robins were moving all over the ground and giving their fussy calls.  They were joined by spotted towees.  Yellow-rumped warblers were singing. Canada geese and ducks - buffleheads, common mergansers, ruddy ducks - were swimming in the river. Gulls were there in great numbers. I could hear the Chi-CA-go calls of a flock of California quail and the hunting call of a red-tail hawk.  An Allen's hummingbird was sitting at the entrance to the garden and then started feeding on red, tubular flowers while I watched. When I noted the location, I found that I was walking into a bird sanctuary.

This is definitely a wonderful place to visit. Bring your hiking shoes, bike and binoculars,  and take a ride to the Shasta Dam and enjoy the birds.Visit the museum and the gardens. Bring your lunch or eat in the museum cafe.

An Evening Walk Along the Feathr River

After over half a day to get my car radio fixed, I decided I needed a good walk.  It was only about twenty miles out of my way to go to Oroville. I decided to hike near the dam but found I would have to pay a day use fee to use the Lake Oroville Recreation Area so went looking for another walk.  I accidentally lost myself, most serendipitously, just at the entrance of a little park. But when I got out of the car, I found a hike/bike trail on a lower level and set out.

The first thing I came across was a runaway doll sitting all alone on a bench.  I loved the way her hair was the perfect shade of red to go with the green of the bench. She didn't seem concerned about being lost.  But I bet her mother was frantic.

 I saw a couple of fly fishermen enjoying the river.

And several kinds of fruit or nut trees were in bloom.

 A whole flock of bufflehead were playing in the river.  They stayed up in a group for one picture.

Soon one of them was busy getting cleaned up for the evening. Wonder if he had a hot date?

The park had planted olive trees along the trail in a few places. Their silvery foliage added to the evening's beauty.

 

A  mocking bird wondered what I was doing. 

And I enjoyed many views of the river and the surrounding lands.

Someone had planted a mass of flowers that were going to sleep in the setting sun.

This stretch of land across the river looked like it had been folded badly with lots of wrinkles and bumps.

This walk made the whole day worth while.  Then I treated myself to a dinner at the Gold City Grill  in Oroville, which has wonderful home-style meals impeccably cooked. And the service is wonderful.  You can make substitutions at no extra cost and the meal comes quickly. I had fried chicken, a baked potato, steamed broccoli, and white bean soup. Then I had a totally divine piece of lemon sour cream pie to finish off the meal.

A Week With With Friends - Part IV Last Two Days

Thursday, Bob, Natalie and I were ready to go check out Oraville which has lots of fun to offer, from birding and hiking to museums in a historical town to scenic views along the Feather River as it tumbles down the mountains into Lake Oraville. In warmer months, there is lake and white water paddling and excellent fishing. . And we learned, that the city may put in a white water park.

The day was rainy so we decided to visit the Lake Oraville Visitor Center.  I was even more impressed with it as we looked at more details than I had done the first time I visited there. One of the most interesting things to me, this time, was the story of how the Lake Oraville Dam was built. At 770 feet,it is the tallest dam in the United States and powers California's third largest hydroelectric and forms California's second largest reservoir. A lot of the material used to build the earthern dam was tailings left over from gold mining. A set of trains could haul and unload 120 cars of fill each hour. We then better understood the miniature diorama showing the railroad coming to the dam and  two cars being dumped at a time without having to be unhitched from the rest of the train.

Model showing how the cars were unloaded without uncoupling, two at a time

Then we went to the Native American section and Bob and Natalie enjoyed the Ishi exhibit.  This is the story of of the last of the Yahi people.  An anthropologist named him Ishi, which means man, because he had no name of his own - had no one to give him a naming ceremony. He became a teacher, and taught his language, and how he hunted and fished, while learning about the white man's culture. There is even a picture of him at the opera. As happened to most of his tribe, he was killed by a white man's disease, in his case, tuberculosis.

Meanwhile, I was enjoying reading the guide to the exhibit about James Pierson Beckwourth, a famous African-American.  Beckwourth was an  explorer, trapper, and businessman. He also was an adopted Crow and spent a lot of time with them. He discovered a new pass and got the city of Marysville, a town to the south of Oraville,  to pay him 10, 000 to build a trail through the pass and then guided settlers to California through through that pass along the Feather River. Marysville burned down and he never got his money so became a trader on the trail for a while.

Dutch and Tracy finally caught up with us for lunch, then elected to stay on in Oraville and do some birding while we went back to Sacramento NWR to bird along the auto tour. We had been too busy or the weather had been too rainy to do this earlier.

Friday was the day for getting ready for the Chico Goose Festival for me and for field trips for Dutch, Tracy, and Natalie. I had told them to be sure and go on private trips, rather than to trips to any public lands.  Natalie scored the best trip, the one to Paskenta's C & R Ranch which also included lunch provided by the ranch owners.  We barely got her to the meeting place in time to join the trip.  She came back bubbling about several lifers, including the Lewis Woodpecker and I think both mountain and western bluebirds and a feruginous hawk, the wonderful ranch, the marvelous hosts, the amazing soup lunch, and the amazingly crazy people - just like her - that she traveled with.  She was also responsible for breaking up the caravan of cars when she spotted the only burrowing owl of the day and stopped everyone behind her.  Finally the trip leader came back with the rest of the group to enjoy it also. She ended up not getting back until 4:00 P.M. although she was due back at 2:00.

I helped set up the Junior Duck Stamp winners and the Sac table - in the background.

Natalie's picture of some of the birding tour

Tracy didn't get to see many birds on her trip but did get to study hawks an learned how to tell some of them in flight. Dutch went on a field trip on how to record bird songs.

Bob is the only one of us that is not a bird fanatic so he elected to use my car to visit fly fishing shops in the area.  Then, after I finished helping set up the refuge exhibit and the pictures of the winning Junior Duck Stamp competition, he picked me up and we went to Sierra Nevada Brewing Company , We just made the 12:00 tour which only had four of us on it. It was most amazing to me, a mostly non-beer drinker, to find out how beer is made.  And I found out that I do like dark ales. I was also impressed by the greenness of the company and how worker-friendly it is.  It even has an on-site day care for the worker's children. After the tour, we had fantastic lunches. I had a portabella sandwich that was totally delicious.

We lingered over lunch and then went to wait to pick up Natalie.  We found Dutch still waiting for Tracy. Neither of them had had lunch, so they went off to eat lunch while the rest of us went hiking at Upper Bidwell Park along the Yahi Trail.

Checking out the birds along the Yahi trail

 We finished out the day with dinner at the Outback Steak House. The Friends of Anahuac had given me a gift certificate there and I thought it would be fun to share it with the gang.

All too soon, it was Saturday and time to say goodby for a while. But we all kept good memories of a great week.

A Visit to Bidwell Park

After shopping at the only grocery store in Willows, it was clear I would have to go further afield to find the foods I eat and find a cheaper place to shop.  I was directed to Chico, the nearest big city to us.  It is about thirty-five miles away.  I was also given a list of things to do around Chicoand Bidwell Park, advertised as one of the largest municipal parks in the nation caught my attention.  There is a lower area, that is more like a city park and an upper area that is divided into several sections in a majestic canyon through which Chico Creek Flows. It totals 3,670 acres.

I went up back roads and saw lots of nut farms.  I also had a good view of the Coast Range and got to see some sandhill cranes. They  only fly over Sacramento NWR but feed at some of the other wildlife refuges in our complex and in rice fields. 

The park has a lovely mix of meadows and woodlands. The first thing to catch my eye was a flame red tree against a tan background.

I pulled into Five Mile Recreation Area and found  a paved bike/hike trail that went over Big Chico Creek.
There was also a beautiful picnic area there.

I continued to the end of the road for cars.  But horses, bikes and hikers can use the trails, some paved and some dirt. This area is in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range and has beautiful low hills with rock outcroppings.

Several trails parallel the creek which has several swimming holes in it.  I won't be here when it's swimming time, though. I am looking forward to taking a long hike or bike trip the next time I come to shop.

And I did find a Budget Market across from Trader Joe's so I was able to find everything I wanted except for light Miracle Whip.  I did see a Safeway on they way home on the main highways so I should be fixed for food.