Living Our Dream

Simi Valley to Yucca Valley, CA

After we left Simi Valley we had a relatively short drive of about 100 miles to Riverside, CA. Simi Valley is located to the northwest of Los Angeles and Riverside is located to the east, which meant we had to drive around LA. Therefore, we scheduled our departure from Simi Valley for Sunday so we could avoid the infamous LA traffic. Even on Sunday traffic was heavy, but there were no tie-ups.

At Riverside we stayed at Rancho Jurupa Park, which is yet another county park (Riverside County). There are new and old sections in the campground. The old section (Lakeview) has no-hookup, partial-hookup and full-hookup sites, and it has gravel roads and pads. The new section (Cottonwood) has all full hookups with 30/50 amp electric, cable and free Wi-Fi. It has paved roads and pads with nice grass between the sites. The new section has recently been completed. In fact, it is so new they are still working on parts of it.

When Margery made reservations, she thought she was reserving in the new section; but when we got there we found out our site was in the old section. Since we arrived on Sunday, the campground was pretty empty so they were able to switch us to a site in the new section. The price is a little higher, but the sites are much nicer. There are some pull-throughs, but most of the sites are back-ins. The sites are nicely spaced and extra, extra long.

Margery's parents had friends from back in Pittsburgh who moved to Riverside years ago. Margery's parents kept in touch, and so has Margery even though her folks have both passed away. We visited Birdy and Bob when we were in Riverside back in 2007, and we made plans to stop again since we were so close when we were in Simi Valley.

Margery's mom was Swiss, and so is Birdy. We had a nice visit and a delicious lunch of a traditional Swiss dish called raclette. Raclette is both the name of a cheese as well as the dish that is made with the cheese. The cheese is served melted over small, boiled potatoes. Originally, the round of cheese was placed in front of the campfire or the fireplace. As the cheese on the surface facing the fire melted it was scraped onto the diners' places and eaten with the potatoes.

Margery has also been in contact with an old high school friend who lives in the area. On another evening we met with Herb and his wife Gloria at a nearby restaurant called Polly's Pies where they treated us to dinner. In addition to being famous for delicious pies, Polly's has great sandwiches and dinners. We both had chicken pot pie, which is one of their specialties.

Riverside is a nice town. It isn't too big, and it's away from the congestion of LA. The downtown has a lot of picturesque Spanish-style architecture. It also has a quirky restaurant we noticed one day driving through town called Tio's Tacos. We didn't eat there, but we did stop for some photos. They have whimsical sculptures and fountains all over the grounds. The next photo shows the one that first caught our eye. It is a wire cage in the shape of a man sitting on their balcony. The cage is filled with beer cans.

 

At the entrance to their parking lot was a similar figure, except this one was a two-headed chef filled with oyster shells. The buttons on his smock are hard to see, but they are smashed beer cans.

 

Behind the restaurant is a very large patio that has sculptures everywhere. Some of them are 20 or 25 feet high. Among the sculptures there are numerous areas for outdoor dining. The entire patio is a mosaic made up from pieces of marble and ceramic tile of various colors. One of the more unusual features was a beer bottle chapel that was similar to the glass houses that we saw recently in Rhyolite and Calico Ghost Towns.

When we left Riverside we only had about a 75-mile drive to our next destination at Yucca Valley, CA, where we wanted to visit Joshua Tree National Park. On our way to Yucca Valley we would pass near Redlands, CA, which is the home of Redlands Truck and RV. Redlands Truck is a contributor and sponsor of iRV2.com, which is an online RV forum in which Paul participates. We needed to have the oil changed and the radiator flushed in the motor home. Redlands Truck has a reputation for doing good work, so we decided to support one of the forum sponsors, and we scheduled an appointment to stop on our way by.

When we dropped the motor home off, they said it would take most of the day so we headed off to Walmart and to run a few other errands. We also stopped for lunch at Qdoba Mexican Grill, which is one of our favorite chain restaurants. It wasn't too hot, so we ate outside.

We took our time getting back to Redlands Truck. When we got there, they told us the serpentine belt was pretty badly cracked, and they recommended replacing it. The serpentine belt runs the power steering and the water pump, so if it goes you're not going to get too far. We didn't get out of there until their closing time at 5:00 PM, so we were glad we only had another hour and a half or so to drive.

By the time we stopped to gas up, we didn't get to Yucca Valley until almost 7:00, which is way later than we normally arrive at our destination. We had reservations at Yucca Valley RV Park, so we called ahead to tell them we would be arriving late.

Yucca Valley RV is a small campground with only about 15 sites. The sites have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric and cable. The road is paved, but the sites are all gravel, and they are all back-ins. The sites are a little narrow, but most of them are fairly long. Backing into our site was a little tricky because of the close spacing of the trees and the permanently fixed picnic table and charcoal grill, but we made it with no scrapes.

 

The campground is right on a 4-lane road that is a major route for north-south traffic between the Palm Springs area and Barstow, and it is also the east-west route from Twenty-nine Palms with its big Marine base to the LA area. Therefore, there is a fair amount of road noise in the campground.

There is also a ready-mix concrete plant behind the campground, and you can hear the piercing backup beepers of the trucks and front-end loaders in the morning. The beepers start at 5:30 AM.

The main purpose for our stop in Yucca Valley was to visit Joshua Tree National Park, and we headed there the following morning. We'll tell you all about it in our next post.

Reagan Presidential Library

After having recently visited the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock and the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, we found out we really enjoy visiting presidential libraries. We were disappointed that we didn't take the time last year to visit the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. In May when we were finalizing our summer travel plans for this year, we decided to go the extra 500 miles from the Grand Canyon to visit it.

It was about a three hour drive from the county park at Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA, to Simi Valley where we stayed at Tapo Canyon Regional Park, which is another county park (Ventura County). Tapo Canyon is located a little north of the city of Simi Valley. The park only has about 20 sites, but they all have full hookups with 30/50 amp electric. The road around the campground and the pads are paved, but the rest of the campground is all dirt. Even with a 10% senior discount, the nightly rate was a bit high at almost $40 when the reservation fee was added in. However, the sites are generously spaced, the surrounding hills are attractive, and the campground is nice and quiet.

When we arrived, only a few sites were occupied, but we saw most of the rest of the sites had "Reserved" tags on them, so we waited for the place to full up and get zooy on the weekend. When only one other RV showed up Friday night, we checked the reserved tags and found they were all left over from the previous weekend which was Memorial Day. We ended up sharing the campground with only 6 other RVs, including the campground hosts.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, located in the hills above Simi Valley, and was only about 20 minutes from the campground. The library was opened in 1991 and is designed in a Spanish colonial style. The intimate appearance of the entrance belies the fact this is the largest of all the presidential libraries.

We decided to go to the library on Friday hoping there would be fewer people there than on the weekend. However, we forgot about school field trips, and there were at least 5 school buses in the parking lot when we arrived. As it turned out, the library is plenty big enough we hardly noticed the kids. Plus, when we did cross paths with them, we found them to be among the best behaved school groups we have ever seen.

Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was born in Illinois, and, after spending a few years in radio in the mid-west, he moved to Los Angeles in the late 1930s where he became an actor. He appeared in numerous TV programs and 52 movies, one of the most famous of which is Knute Rockne, All American. Ronald Reagan played the role of George "the Gipper" Gip (win one for the Gipper). Reagan was known by the nickname "the Gipper" for the rest of his life.

In his younger days, Ronald Reagan was a liberal Democrat who admired Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. In the early 1950s, however, he began supporting Republican political candidates, and he served as Republican Governor of California from 1967 to 1975.

In 1976, Reagan narrowly lost the Republican Presidential nomination to incumbent Gerald Ford, who ultimately lost the election to Jimmy Carter. Reagan won the Republican nomination in 1980 and defeated Carter in November of that year.

Parts of the library were closed for renovations when we were there in preparation for Ronald Reagan's 100th birthday in 2011. However, most of the exhibits were open including the full-size replica of the Oval Office as it appeared during President Reagan's terms in office.

The Air Force One Pavilion was opened in 2001 after the retirement of the Boeing 707 that was used as Air Force One by President Reagan. The 747 that is currently in use was ordered during the Reagan Administration, but was not put into service until Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush, took office.

We were able to tour the aircraft, but photographs were not permitted on board. We did, however, stop for a photo at the exit by the tail.

The Air Force One Pavilion also has a Marine One helicopter on display. President Eisenhower was the first U. S. President to use a helicopter for transportation. "White Tops," as they are called because of the familiar green and white paint scheme started by President Kennedy, are used for on shorter journeys and to shuttle the President back and forth from the White House to Andrews Air Base in Maryland to board Air Force One.

 

As we explained when we visited the retired Air Force One plane at the LBJ Library, these aircraft are commonly called Air Force One and Marine One, but they do not receive that official designation until the President is actually on board. 

President Reagan's limousine is also on display in the pavilion. This 1984 Cadillac was state-of-the-art when it was first built. Incidentally, President Clinton's limo in Little Rock will be the last one put on display. All limos after that will undergo destructive testing when they are decommissioned to evaluate the effectiveness of the armor in order to make improvements in the future.

There are beautiful views down into the valley from several locations at the library, including from the terrace outside the pavilion. They even say you can see the Pacific Ocean, but it was pretty hazy the day we were there. The haze in Simi Valley was gray because it was caused mostly by the marine layer (fog off the ocean), but the haze looking toward LA (out of the photo to the left) was brownish because it was a combination of marine layer and smog.

From the outside stairway to the upper level of the pavilion we could see a whimsical topiary in the shape of an Republican elephant.

President Reagan visited 26 foreign countries during his two terms in office. These countries are represented by their flags displayed on the upper floor of the Air Force One Pavilion. There is an accompanying display of a number of photos showing some of those visits.

 

President Reagan is credited by many as being instrumental in bringing about the end to the Cold War. The upper floor of the pavilion also has a display symbolizing Checkpoint Charlie, which was the best-known crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War.

There was also an excellent video detailing Reagan's role in ending the Cold War. He took a tough stance against the USSR by strengthening the U. S. Military, by reviving the B-1 bomber program canceled by Carter, by strengthening ties with our allies, and by proposing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). SDI was a land and space-based nuclear missile defense system. Opponents of dubbed it "Star Wars" and said it wouldn't work. But it did work to help end the Cold War, and we didn't even have to build it. Just the prospect of a comprehensive defense system was enough.

In a speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987, commemorating the 750th anniversary of Berlin, Ronald Reagan challenged Michail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union, by saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The wall came down a little over two years later in 1989, and the Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991.

Outside on the lawn of the Reagan Library is a section of the Berlin Wall. The East Berlin (communist) side of the wall is stark, gray concrete. The West Berlin side was decorated with artwork and graffiti.

From the pavilion the tour went to the National Treasures Gallery where there were some of gifts given to President Reagan by visiting heads of state.

Also on display is the suit President Reagan was wearing when he was shot during an assassination attempt by John Hinkley, Jr. on March 30, 1981. Although Reagan recovered, the bullet narrowly missed his heart and pierced his left lung.

 

One of ours favorites at the museum was a temporary display of a miniature of the White House. With a scale of one inch equals one foot, the model is 50 feet long and 18 feet wide. The model, which was created by the Zweiffel family, took over 600,000 hours to build. First exhibited in 1979, this model has been seen by 42 million people.

You can peer through the windows and see hand-carved tables and chairs, crystal chandeliers and working televisions. The wall on the back side is open revealing even more of the amazing detail.

There are also displays of individual rooms from various periods in history including this one with President Lincoln. Lincoln appears to be looking into the fireplace in deep thought.

We left the library by way of Reagan Memorial site. After struggling with Alzheimer's Disease in his later years, Ronald Reagan Died on June 5, 2004. After a state funeral in Washington, D. C., his body was flown to the library in Simi Valley for burial.

President Reagan once said, "There is no limit to what you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." This presidential library exemplifies his belief. There were bronze plaques and pictures recognizing many, many of the people who served with him. Although we've only visited three presidential libraries so far, this was the first time we have seen such a magnanimous gesture in such a setting.

We enjoyed our visit to the Reagan Presidential Library and learning more about this period in history. After our visit we had a day to chill out around the motor home, then we headed for a new location. Stay tuned.

Calico Ghost Town

Calico Ghost Town in Yermo, CA, turned up in Margery's online research, and it sounded interesting. Calico Ghost Town is part of a county park, and it also has a campground. Yermo, which is right next to Barstow, CA, is about four hours from Beatty, NV, so it made a good place for our next stop.

We scheduled two nights at Calico since we also needed to stop at a grocery store, and we wanted time to visit the ghost town.

The rate at the campground is a little high at $30 a night, even for full hookups, but it also includes admission to the ghost town. There are no hookup sites, partial hookup sites, and full hookup sites. We're not sure about the partial hookup sites, but it looked like all the full hookup sites had 30/50 amp electric.

The road into the campground is paved, but the entire rest of the campground is dirt. It's probably the only time we were glad we didn't have Molly! We can only imagine how gray her fur would have gotten. The sites are very narrow, and most of them are pretty short. Some of the sites aren't very level. The photo below shows our site at Calico Ghost Town Park.

 

The next photo shows several of the neighboring sites.

There is no traffic noise and there are no trains. The campground was very quiet, at least it was when we were there during the week. Although off-highway vehicles (OHVs - dirt bikes, dune buggies, quads, etc.) are not permitted in the campground, riding is allowed in the surrounding mountains, so it could get noisy on the weekends.

After we got set up, we headed into Barstow to run our errands. The next morning Margery went into town for a haircut while Paul made a small repair to one of the slide toppers on the motor home. When Margery got back, we walked up the dirt road to the ghost town.

As we said, Calico Ghost Town is operated as a county park. The town was founded in 1881 as a silver mining town. Calico hit its peak population of about 1,200 people in 1887. Shortly after that, the price of silver fell, and the mines in Calico were no longer economically viable. The town was essentially abandoned by 1907.

In 1951, Walter Knott of Knott's Berry Farms bought the town and began restoring it. Only five of the original buildings exist today, but Knott rebuilt the rest of the buildings on the original foundations using old photographs for reference. Some of these old photographs, sometimes even showing former residents, were posted with a written history on some of the buildings. Margery found the photos to be especially interesting.

Most of the buildings house gift shops, a restaurant and snack shops. Walter Knott donated the town to San Bernadino County in 1966. The next photo shows the main street of Calico.

The building in the photo below is one of the original buildings. It used to be a residence, and now it is used as the park office.

Another of the original buildings is the Lane House.

John and Lucy Bell Lane lived in this house until they left Calico in 1899. They returned in 1916 and moved into what was their former store. John died in 1954, and Mrs. Lane continued to live in Calico until 1965. She died in 1967.

The Lane House is now a museum with artifacts from the town and items that belonged to the Lanes.

Calico gets its name from the bright colors in the rocks in the hills surrounding the town. They used to say, "They're as purdy as a gal's calico skirt." The building in the next photo is the schoolhouse, which is reconstructed on its original site, with one of the colorful hills in the background.

You can climb partway up the hill behind the town where some of the mines used to be. There were as many as 500 mines around Calico, and there are tunnel entrances everywhere in the hillsides. There are also "Do Not Enter" warning signs everywhere. There is, however, a tour of the Maggie Mine that is open to the public.

On the hill you can also see how some of the miners built huts under rock overhangs using stones and adobe mud.

The hill is pretty steep, but you can get all the way up to most of the huts.

 

There are other things in Calico to do like mock gunfights and panning for gold, although those things didn't seem to be going on the day we were there. Maybe they only have them on weekends. The train that you can ride to the other side of the hill and back was operating.

 

The Hyena House was a hotel of sorts that was originally constructed of sugar barrel staves under a rock overhang. When the stage came to town, the owner of the hotel would grab a wheelbarrow, run to the depot and yell, "Free bus to the Hyena House."

The next photo shows one of the rooms. If you think the room is grim, wait till you hear what was on the menu for breakfast - beans and whiskey.

Calico has a bottle house similar to the one we saw at Rhyolite, although this one isn't original to the town. This one was built in 1951 by Walter Knott.

Unlike the bottle house at Rhyolite, this one isn't plastered over on the inside. The exposed bottles, although hard to keep clean, allow in an amazing amount of light. It would be almost impossible to oversleep.

On our way out of the ghost town, we stopped by the sheriff's office.

The building isn't open, but inside they had a very unusually-styled safe that we had never seen before.  Known as a cannonball safe, the heavy weight and rounded corners made them hard to pick up to steal.

Back at the motor home, we chilled out for the rest of the day. The next morning, we were off to our next destination.

Southern Oregon Coast

Our drive from Joseph Stewart Recreation Area near Medford to our next stop in Reedsport, OR, on the coast took about four hours. It should have been shorter, but we ran into construction in a couple of areas. We finally made it to Winchester Bay RV Resort located at Salmon Harbor Marina just a few miles south of the town of Reedsport where the Umpqua River meets the Pacific.

Most of the sites at Winchester Bay RV have a view of the water, and some are located directly on the water overlooking either the marina or the river. The sites located directly on the marina are designed with the hookups near the street so motor homes can pull in frontwards. Trailers or 5th wheels that must back in will need extra-long electrical cables and hoses to reach the utilities. The photo below shows our site overlooking the marina at Winchester Bay RV Resort.

Winchester Bay has full hookups with 50 amp electric, cable, and free Wi-Fi. The roads, pads, and patios are all paved, and the sites are well-spaced with well-manicured grass and shrubs between. The campground was fairly quiet except for when the wind was flapping our slide-toppers. It got windy in the late afternoon the first two days of our stay, and it was windy almost all day the other two days we were there. Fortunately, the wind died down at night.

One attraction in the area that was recommended to us by friends was the Sea Lion Caves located about 45 minutes north of Reedsport. The Sea Lion Caves are the largest sea caves in the world. A colony of hundreds of sea lions live in and around the caves. Other colonies live on the rocks offshore. They are Stellar Sea Lions, which is a non-migratory species, so the animals spend all year in the area. In winter, much of the colony tends to seek shelter from the weather in the cave. In summer, most of them spend more time outside on the rocks. In spring, the pups are born on the rocks, also known as the rookery. The photo below shows hundreds of sea lions on the rocks below the cliff.

 

The next photo is a little closer view. You can see several sea lions that have just climbed up from the water onto the rocks.

 

The caves were reportedly discovered in 1880 by William Cox, who was a sea captain. Cox was fascinated by the caves and the sea lions and bought the land from the state in 1887. In 1927, R. E. Clanton bought the land from the estate of William Cox intending to develop the caves into a tourist attraction. Clanton's friends considered it to be a foolhardy venture because there weren't very many tourists at that time. Highway 101 didn't exist yet, and the only access to the coast was by a gravel road. Still, Clanton persuaded two others to join him in partnership.

Brave visitors originally entered the caves by climbing down a rope ladder hanging over the cliff to a primitive foot bridge. The business struggled during the 1930s, and the original partnership was dissolved and a new one was formed. A new, enclosed stairway was eventually built 200 feet down the north face of the cliff into the cave. After WWII, the business finally started to prosper.

When the original roadside entrance building was destroyed by a fire in 1946, a new one was built to look just like the old one. The next photo shows the building perched on the edge of the cliff. There is additional parking across the road, including a few spaces for RVs.

 

In 1958, the owners decided to replace the old stairway with an elevator. It took two years to blast the 215-foot shaft for the elevator down into the rock because they only worked during the spring when most of the sea lions were outside the cave, and then only on days when most of the remaining sea lions had voluntarily left the cave. They didn't want to harm the sea lions or scare them away permanently. The elevator, which was opened in 1961, was specially designed to resist all the damp, salt air.

Behind the entrance building, there are platforms that can be used for whale watching when the California gray whales are on their way north a little earlier in the spring. There is also a sculpture of a sea lion family, and the next photo shows Margery with the sea lions.

A path winds down the face of the cliff to the left where you can see the sea lions on the rocks. Another trail to the right takes you to the elevator to the cave. The next photo shows the area down over the cliff where the inlet leads into the cave from the ocean.

 

At the bottom of the 215 foot elevator ride, it is a short walk down a ramp to the cave where the sea lions hang out.

 

The next photo is a closer shot of a number of the sea lions sitting on a large rock in the center of the cave. Sea lions were also scattered on the rocks around the edges of the cave.

We were glad to have been able to have a more up close and personal view of elephant seals in Moro Bay and the sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco. The shear number of seals here on the Oregon coast was noteworthy, and the cave was interesting; but seeing them from such a long distance was frustrating.

The Sea Lion Caves are located in volcanic rock. To the north of the caves is Heceta Head Lighthouse located on a volcanic rock headland. The 56-foot tall lighthouse was first lit in 1894. The light is visible for up to 21 miles. Heceta Head Lighthouse claims to be the most photographed lighthouse in the world.

While the coastal area from the caves northward is mostly volcanic rock, the area to the south is covered by sand dunes. From the caves, you can see where rocks end and the dunes begin.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area covers a 40-mile stretch of coastline from a little south of the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, OR, past Reedsport, and on down to Coos Bay. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area is used for camping, hiking, picnicking, horseback riding, and off-road vehicles.

Unlike the dunes at Marina Dunes in California which are covered by a variety of wildflowers, these dunes are covered mostly by grasses. The dunes here are also much higher than in California. Although the biggest dunes we saw in Oregon were probably less than 100 feet high, they can reportedly reach heights of up to 500 feet. As you move inland, there are an increasing number of shrubs on the dunes, and eventually some trees. There are also islands of trees, which are the remnants of forested land that has been overrun by the dunes. The area covered by dunes along the Oregon coast can be up to two or three miles wide. The next photo is a little closer view of the dunes.

On another day, we drove south to Coos Bay to make a Walmart stop. With a population of 15,000 to 16,000 people, the city of Coos Bay is the largest city along the Oregon coast and the only city on the Oregon coast with a Walmart.

Along the way, we passed Umpqua River Lighthouse just south of the campground. The first lighthouse was built near this site at the mouth of the Umpqua River in 1857, but when the river overflowed its banks in 1861, it caused the lighthouse to topple. The lighthouse that stands today is 65 feet tall and was first lit on Dec. 31, 1894. The photo below shows the Umpqua River Lighthouse.

 

The body of water called Coos Bay is the largest natural harbor between San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA. The major products exported from Coos Bay Harbor are logs and wood chips used for paper. In Coos Bay, we came across this huge pile of wood chips being collected for export. The pile was several blocks long and about 40 to 50 feet high.

The little town of Charleston is located on the western side of Coos Bay and is the home of a marina where many pleasure boats and a large, commercial-fishing fleet are docked. We took a drive over there to take a look. The next photo shows some of the fishing boats docked at Charleston.

After our little sightseeing tour around the Coos Bay area, we made our Walmart stop. Then we headed back to the motor home, relaxed a little, and made preparations to pack up and head out the next morning. The weather was in the 50s and low 60s the entire time we were in Reedsport, and it was windy much of the time; but at least it was sunny. We're looking forward to going inland again to warm up.

Redding, CA

We originally planned to leave Napa, drive north up U. S. Highway 101, then head west to visit several areas along the northern California coast. We checked the ten-day weather forecast for the coast, and it was calling for temperatures in the 50s, clouds, and a chance of rain several of the days. Well, we were tired of the cool, gray weather and playing peek-a-boo with the sun, so we changed our plans to travel farther inland instead.

We learned the locals call the coastal weather "Gray May" and "June Gloom." Apparently, the land warms up faster than the Pacific Ocean in spring, and this temperature difference creates a lot of fog as the cool air blows in off the water. So, if we ever make it back to the northern California coast, we'll have to try to schedule the trip for some other time of the year.

Our new route took us inland to I-5 and north to Redding, CA where we stayed at Mountain Gate RV Park. Mountain Gate is north of Redding near Shasta Lake. The office staff at Mountain Gate RV was very friendly and helpful, especially when we asked if they would accept mail for us and then wanted to change sites because we couldn't get satellite reception in the first site they assigned us. The photo below shows our site at Mountain Gate RV.

Mountain Gate RV has paved roads and pads with grass between the sites, and site width isn't bad for a private campground. There are full hookups with 50 amp electric and cable, and they have free Wi-Fi. The campground is very attractive and the grass and landscaping are well-groomed. As with the other campgrounds we saw in the Redding area, Mountain Gate RV is a little close to the interstate, which means there is some traffic noise. Fortunately, our change in travel plans worked, and it was hot most of the time we were there. Running the air helped cover the sound of the traffic.

The morning following our arrival, we drove a few miles over to Shasta Dam. Shasta Dam was built from 1938 to 1945 across Sacramento River for water retention and for the generation of electricity. It is the second largest dam in the United States based on volume of concrete. The largest is Grand Coulee Dam across the Columbia River in Washington State. The photo below shows Shasta Dam.

The building of Shasta Dam created Shasta Lake, which is shown in the next photo. Shasta Lake is the largest man-made lake in California and is popular for boating, especially house boating. Somewhere lost in the clouds on the horizon is Mount Shasta way off in the distance.

 

There are free tours that take visitors down into the dam to see some of the many passageways and to see the generator room. Unfortunately, we just missed a tour, and we decided it was too long to wait for the next one, so instead we watched the movie about the building of the dam and looked at some of the photos and displays before taking off.

A well known feature of Redding is the Sundial Bridge. The bridge, which is part of the Sacramento River Trail system, is a pedestrian bridge that spans the Sacramento River in the heart of Redding. It was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and is constructed from steel and granite. It has a translucent glass deck with lights below the glass which makes it seem to glow at night. The bridge is suspended from cables attached to a large pylon on the northern end. The photo below shows the bridge as we walked across.

 

The white pylon was striking against the cloudless sky.

The pylon also acts as the gnomon of a sundial to indicate the time on a scale on the ground. It was about 12:20 PM. The sundial was indicating 11:20 because it doesn't account for Daylight Savings Time.

 

In addition to being part of the Sacramento River Trail, the Sundial Bridge also connects the northern part of Turtle Bay Exploration Park with the southern part. Turtle Bay has a museum, a maze, a butterfly house, and various historical and cultural exhibits. It also has the McConnell Arboretum and Botanical Gardens at the north end of the bridge. We didn't realize it was that close until we got there; but since it was close, we decided to check out the gardens. The photo below shows Margery enjoying some of the flowers near the entrance to the botanical gardens.

The next several photos show views from different areas of the garden. As with any successful garden, there was an excellent variety of color and texture.

 

 

We haven't visited that many gardens in California, but a common thread seems to be the presence of art and sculpture along with the plants. There was a sculpture called Lookout Tree created by sculptor Patrick Dougherty. He does natural sculptures from willow. It took about three weeks for Dougherty, park staff, and volunteers to complete the work. The photo below shows Lookout Tree.

 

It was fun walking in and out of the openings and looking up at the patterns of light through the openings in the top.

There was also a very interesting mosaic sculpture at the far end of the garden called Mosaic Oasis. There was a drinking fountain, a decorative fountain, and benches covered in ceramic tiles, mirrors, and stones.

 

The next photo is a closeup of the turtle covered with bits of colored glass, ceramic tiles, and pebbles.

 

We walked back a different path and passed a sculpture made from three large stones surrounded by water gardens filled with pickerel rush, giant horsetail rush, papyrus, and water lilies.

 

We enjoyed our visit to the Sundial Bridge and to the botanical garden. We'll finish our post off with a composite of some closeups of a few of the flowers we saw at the garden.

There are a lot more things to see in and around Redding. Look for our next post to see what else we found.