A Weekend in Redding California: Romance, Local Culture, & Outdoor Adventures
We recently spent a lovely three-day weekend in Redding California, which lies within the Shasta Cascade area that covers a large portion of northern California. Redding is an approximate 2.5 hour drive from Sacramento or 3.5 hour drive from San Francisco, a perfect distance for a weekend getaway. Redding and the surrounding area is definitely most known to travelers for its scenic natural wonders and the opportunity to engage in a multitude of outdoor activities such as kayaking, hiking, sailing, and biking. However we wanted to combine a healthy dose of outdoor activities and natural scenery with some local culture and romance. During the days, we hiked, explored caves and dams, visited museums, and gushed at majestic waterfalls, but in the evenings we dined well, gazed at romantic sunsets, and stayed in a cozy bed-and-breakfast. Keep reading for our tips on how to plan your own weekend in Redding and how you can combine romance, local culture and history, and outdoor adventures to suit your own personal tastes and preferences.Burney Falls weekend in Redding California Shasta CascadeHow to Plan your Perfect Weekend in ReddingBest Way to Get AroundWhereas buses are a possible way to get around the area, the easiest and most efficient mode of transportation will be driving. Wed definitely recommend driving here or renting a car to get the most out of your trip as many of the attractions can be far apart and not easily accessible via public transportation. Redding is an approximate 2.5 hour drive from Sacramento or 3.5 hour drive from San Francisco. Bikers may want to drive here and then plan a route that allows for biking between attractions as there are a lot of great biking paths and trails in the area.Best Time of Year to Visit the Shasta Cascade areaThe best time to visit depends a lot on what you are interested in doing as winter snow may close certain areas such as Lassen Volcanic National Park but allows for many fun wintertime activities such as skiing, snowshoeing, and ice skating. Spring and summer are great times for water activities such as rafting, canoeing, swimming, and boating. The area can get quite hot in the summers and cold in the winters, and has four distinct seasons. If you are looking for the most temperate seasons, plan a visit during Fall or Spring.Best Travel ResourcesThere are three primary websites that Id recommend to find out about travel information and tourist attractions in the area. They are each chock full of helpful information and also provide links to more specific city and regional websites within the area:Shasta Cascade tourism website: http://www.shastacascade.com/ Visit Redding tourism website: http://www.visitredding.com/ Visit California website: http://www.visitcalifornia.com/region/discover-shasta-cascade Day Time Activities in Shasta Cascade: The Time for Outdoor Adventures and Local CultureThere is an endless amount of things to do in Redding and the Shasta Cascade area from hiking to waterfall hunting to learning about the historic importance of gold mining in this area to visiting a national park filled with volcanic wonders. It may be hard to know where to start when planning your itinerary, especially given that seeing the highlights of this region is set out in a 14-day itinerary by the local tourism board! But even if you just have a long weekend in Redding like we did, you can still see many of the interesting sights of this region, but you will need to be choosy. Below are some of the highlights we recommend depending on your interests. Youll also want to check out this Shasta Cascade blog post written by Laurence which provides some great tips on the best outdoor activities and the most photographed scenery around Redding.Be ActiveMany visitors to this area are drawn for the outdoor activities or for the nature views available along its many scenic highways. Redding is known as Californias Natural Gateway and the larger area of Shasta Cascade contains seven National Forests and eight National and State Parks! The area offers an abundance of outdoor recreation opportunities, including fishing, boating, golfing, hiking, climbing, horseback riding, kayaking, biking, mountain climbing, caving, sailing, bird watching, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, and even dog sledding. In the Redding area, there are over 225 miles of hiking trails, including over 70 miles of trails at the nearby Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. One of the most popular is the 17.4 mile Sacramento River National Recreation Trail (combination of the Sacramento River Trail and the Sacramento River-Rail Trail) that can be taken all the way from Shasta Dam to the famous Sundial Bridge. Many visitors trek at least a small part of this paved riverfront trail to see a bit of this areas natural beauty. Further afield, the Bizz Johnson Trail offers a 25.4 mile hike through the rugged Susan River Canyon following an old Southern Pacific Railroad line, and those who trek it will discover twelves bridges, two tunnels, and lots of great mountainous views! Also, dont forget about the Lassen Volcanic National Park which features the opportunity to hike, fish, camp, and learn about wildlife amongst an array of lakes, streams, meadows, and fascinating volcanic features! If you enjoy kayaking, youll be right at home in Redding which earned a place in Time magazine for its weird obsession with kayaking and is now known as the Unofficial Capital of Kayaking. For those adventurous souls interested in mountaineering, you can even climb a mountain such as the 14,162-foot Mount Shasta, although be sure to check climbing conditions and obtain required permits before hiking in the Shasta Cascade area. The list of potential outdoor activities is extensive! For much more information about available local outdoor activities, local rental and tour companies, and current weather conditions check out Visit Reddings website for activities in and around Redding, Visit Mt. Shasta for those related to Mount Shasta and the surrounding area, and the Shasta Cascade tourism website for information about the entire area.Mount Shasta weekend in Redding California Shasta CascadeLearn about the History of the Shasta Cascade AreaThere are a number of ways you can learn more about the history and culture of the Shasta Cascade area. One of the top places to visit in Redding is the Turtle Bay Exploration Park which is a large park complex in Redding that consists of a museum, beautiful gardens, animals, a forest camp, a cafe, and the Sundial Bridge. All aspects of the Turtle Bay Exploration Park are well worth a visit and you can easily spend half a day here. The museum includes both permanent interactive exhibits that focus on regional history and nature as well as two large special exhibition galleries. During our visit, one of the temporary exhibitions focused on the social and cultural aspects of the candy industry with some free candy samples included of course!Turtle Bay Museum weekend in Redding CaliforniaHaving fun in candy exhibition at Turtle Bay MuseumFor those interested in the history of the Shasta area, I would highly recommend a stop at the Shasta State Historical Park located 6 miles west of Redding. Here youll find what remains of the old town of Shasta, once a booming gold mining town nicknamed the Queen City. The highlight of the 19-acre park is the County Courthouse (built 1861) which has been restored and now serves as museum and visitor center. There is also a row of half-ruined brick buildings, cottages, the Pioneer Barn which contains a stagecoach, and a Catholic cemetery that can be explored within walking distance of the museum. We really enjoyed a visit to the Litsch General Store (operated from 1850-1950) which has been restored and is filled with many original items that were actually for sale at that time. There are also picnic tables and bathrooms near the barn so it can be a great place for a picnic on a sunny day. If you want to learn more about the Shasta area, we recommend checking out the historical walking tours provided through the Shasta Historical Society which include tours of downtown Redding, the Shasta State Historical Park, and the local bridges. If you are based in Redding, you can check out this list of historical places to visit around Redding compiled by a local history buff and make a do-it-yourself walking tour.Many towns within the Shasta Cascade area feature small local history museums such as the Lassen Historical Museum in Susanville. You can also visit the downtown centers of many of the small towns that have often still retained some of their historical buildings. For example, McCloud is a small town that has a rich history that began with timber mills and the railroad and its downtown area is a Nationally Registered Historic District. You can also visit McClouds Heritage Junction Museum on Main Street which houses 100 years worth of historical local artifacts, photographs, and exhibits.Litsch General Store Shasta State Historical Park Litsch General StoreLitsch General Store at Shasta State Historical Parkbarn Shasta State Historical Park weekend in Redding California Shasta CascadePioneer BarnExplore the Bridges & DamsThe natural wonders of the Shasta Cascade area are plentiful, but you might also want to consider taking some time to appreciate some of the amazing manmade structures. Because of the number of rivers and streams, the area has a lot of bridges, including historical ones such as the Diestelhorst bridge, built in 1915, which is the first and oldest concrete bridge across the Sacramento River. However, even if bridges are not your cup of tea, youll still want to take a look at the beautiful design of the Sundial Bridge located at the Turtle Bay Exploration Park. It is a translucent glass pedestrian bridge spanning 710 feet that was commissioned by world-famous Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, and is one of the most photographed sites in Redding. Another great manmade wonder you might consider visiting is the large Shasta Dam. The Shasta Dam Visitors Center not only provides free informative tours and exhibits about the dam and local area, but a walk across the dam also affords great views over Shasta Lake. Check out Laurences Redding post about our visit for more great photos of the dam, bridges, and lakes!Sundial Bridge weekend in Redding California Shasta Cascade Shasta Dam weekend in Redding California Shasta CascadeGo CavingThe Shasta Cascade area has a number of caverns, but few are open to the public or easy to explore if you are not an experienced caver. However, you can take a tour of the large Lake Shasta Caverns that were first opened to the public in 1964 and are believed to be about 250 million years old! Our tour started with a short boat ride across Shasta Lake, a short hike to a bus, and then a bus ride up a steep hill to the cavern entrance. Then we spent about 45 minutes inside the cave with our guide learning about the history of these limestone caverns and the various cave formations. The tour ran very smoothly despite needing to board boats and buses along the way and our guide was really knowledgeable. We both really enjoyed it even though wed both been on various cave tours in the past. If you do this tour, keep a look out when outside the cave for local animals as this mountain is home to a number of local birds and animals such as the bald eagle, black bear, bobcat, and black-tailed deer. This tour is not appropriate for those with mobility issues given the amount of walking and large number of steps.Lake Shasta Caverns cave weekend in Redding California Shasta CascadeMarvel at all the Beautiful Waterfalls in the Shasta Cascade AreaThere are three main places wed recommend heading in the Shasta Cascade area if you love waterfalls. The first and probably the most popular to see is Burney Falls at the McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park which is about a one hour drive east of Redding. Burney Falls is a majestic 129-foot waterfall and about 100 million gallons of water flow over this waterfall every day! We recommend doing the short loop hike that takes you down past the falls and around as the scenery is quite nice and youll probably see people fishing along the river. Not too far away are the McCloud Falls located within the Shasta-Trinity National Forest. McCloud Falls consists of three waterfalls with a 3.8 mile trail bordering the McCloud River. You can walk or drive between the falls and the scenery is quite picturesque. The closest spot for good waterfall spotting near Redding is the Whiskeytown National Recreational Area which has four waterfalls that are accessible via hiking trails around the lake. You can pick up hiking trail maps at the Visitors Center and ask the park rangers for advice on which waterfalls to visit.
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