We left the Ashland Creek Campground after laundry and showers at 11:30 am with the temperature about 48 degrees. It’s a 136-mile trek to Redding California on I-5. Neither of us have been through this part of the country and were excited to explore new territory! As we headed down the road, the terrain started to change. The trees began to become sparser with dry grass and sagebrush between. It was a clear sunny day and as we crossed over the border into California heading towards Yreka, there was Mt. Shasta looming ahead of us. We were surprised to see the mountain so clearly and as we continued to drive south, it became bigger and closer. It’s over 14,000 feet in elevation and is stunning with it’s snow-capped peaks, Black Butte jutting close by and it’s wide base that seems to spill out for miles. What a majestic site!
We continued to drive through several passes and the Shasta-Trinity National Forest which is over 2 million acres and includes the largest man-made lake in California, aptly named Shasta Lake. We were stunned to see the water so far below the tree line with layers of red, orange, tan and cream dirt, sand and rocks showing where water used to be. The lake was very low and we found out later by talking to one of our RV neighbors that the lake had been even lower just a couple of weeks ago. When the lake is full, the water surface is 1,067 feet above sea level. In late April during our visit, it was 945 feet above sea level. I read an article that said the water levels are the lowest for the beginning of May since it started being tracked in 1977. Consistent decreased rainfall and snow along with higher temperatures are putting demands on the state’s reservoirs. It was surreal to see – harsh beauty.
Our intentions were to stay overnight at an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) campground – we got to cross the Shasta Dam and the price was right at $10 per night. The OHV area has over 250 miles of roads and trails for off-road fun. I think it made Phil wish he had his dirt bike! We drove across the Shasta Dam and headed down the curvy road to the campground. We found a spot that had a view of the river at the base of the dam. However, our gut told us something wasn’t right, so we headed out for option 2, Bailey Cove Campground which was back across the dam and north on I-5. Trust your gut, it might be nothing, but better nothing than to be something and get murdered by two guys with prison tattoos who don’t fit in with the rest of the OHV or camping crowd. LOL.
Bailey Cove was perfect; we found a spot right away and Phil hiked down to one of the coves that used to be covered by water. Again, surreal.
The next morning, we headed to the local Ford service center in Redding to make an appointment to have the tire situation checked. The first available appointment was Friday morning. Today was Monday. We weren’t planning to stay in Redding…and certainly not for 5 days. But, here again, we trusted our gut and found a great RV park with showers, laundry, grass for Ninja and near a couple of disc golf courses. Read our disc golf course reviews here (coming soon!).
We played disc golf three times, did laundry, and ate very well! We had awesome burgers and shakes at Dude’s in Redding, really good pizza in Anderson at Players Pizza, amazing tri-tip from the San Francisco Deli and iced coffee from Kaleidoscope. We made steaks with salad and Massaman Curry Chicken. We also visited a local disc golf shop to replace a beloved disc that was lost at the Anderson course.
Finally, it was Friday…we decided to extend our reservation at the RV Park one more night in case the van appointment took all day. We dropped off the van and walked to the Kaleidoscope coffee shop for coffee and a bagel. On the way we kept smelling BBQ, like really good BBQ…where was it coming from? As we got closer to the coffee shop, there across the street was a big black smoker BBQ with the tastiest aromas pouring from it. It was the San Francisco Deli – Phil did some research and found on Wednesday and Friday’s they BBQ hand-rubbed choice tri-tip over oak. Lunch was going to be an easy choice.
It was 11ish and we still hadn’t heard from the dealership. There wasn’t really anything to do within walking distance, so we decided to walk to a car rental shop. We called and they had vehicles for roughly $80 per day. On the way, we passed a U-Haul that had vans and small trucks for $19.99 a day. We rented a U-Haul van and were driving to the Ford dealership to pick up our laundry from the van when Phil saw our van being driven on the road ahead of us! We followed it back to the dealership and the service guy said everything checked out but the tires weren’t balanced correctly. Good thing we trusted our gut! He had to submit the paperwork to the manager who would then call with the details.
Since we needed to wait for a call from the manager, we decided to drive our newly acquired U-Haul van to visit the Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay Exploration Park. It’s one of the largest working sundials in the world. It’s so large it only records time from 11 am to 3 pm but it isn’t accurate in the winter because the shadow is too far into the trees. The shadow moves about a foot per minute so you can literally watch time. The sundial is at the end of a bridge made of glass (it looks like blue-green sea glass) that spans the Sacramento River. The dial is an inclined 217-foot steel structure held in place by cables. There is a museum, restaurant, botanical garden, wildlife center and lots of trails to explore on the 300-acre park.
After we explored the Sundial Bridge and walked a short distance on one of the trails, we picked up Birdie, returned the U-Haul van and promptly got some tri-tip! There was a car show in Redding – we didn’t attend since we were leaving Saturday morning, but we felt like we got to see a lot of the cars driving around town. There were even two at the RV Park. Cool to see all the vintage cars in mint condition.
That evening we feasted on tri-tip BBQ, did laundry and prepared to take off in the morning for Lake Tahoe!
