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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Redding, CA: More Trails Than We Expected!

We've spent the last few nights in Redding, CA. It's warmed up a bit into the mid 80's and we were happy to have a nice shady site at the Green Acres RV Park, a little green oasis in a rather industrial part of town.

It turns out that Redding has a large, varied trail system in place. From beautiful paved trails along the river to fun mountain bike single track in the foothills, there's something for everyone. This excellent map is available at the visitor center.

We knew we wanted to ride the Sacramento River Trail, but in a comment from Mona Liza we learned that we could easily ride to the trail from our RV park, saving ourselves a bit of hassle. This paved trail follows the river with three pedestrian bridges and multiple access points. We happened to hit it during the fall Chinook salmon migration so we saw lots of fish and fishermen; we even witnessed the fish take flying, twisting leaps into the air!

Sundial Bridge really is a sundial...but it's only accurate on the day of summer solstice.

We could see huge salmon from the bridge.



At waters edge we saw this salmon looking for the right place to spawn.
She would rest for a minute or two, then stir up the sand with her tail.

Next we hiked the Clear Creek Greenway trail...what an excellent choice this turned out to be! Lots of Chinook were making their way up this large, fast moving creek which turns into a small gorge so there were many viewpoints to watch the fish. We also discovered a cascade section and we read that some of the fish actually do make it up the cascade.

We hiked a fairly short section of the Clear Creek Greenway: from the Honeybee Trailhead to the point where the trail crosses the road, about 3.5 miles round trip. Highly recommended at this time of year!

Our first view of the creek offered dozens of Chinook doing their thing in the shallow, rocky pools.

The creek soon enters a gorge; fish viewing points are easily accessible all along the way.

Here is the top portion of the cascade section...which was at least 300 yards long overall.
There were at least 20 fish in the small pool, resting before making attempts at the rushing water.

Caught one in flight!
It was hard to imagine them making it all the way up the entire cascade,
and we never did see one make it to the next level,
but I did see a fish about halfway up the cascade section.

Tomorrow we drive to Napa for a few nights; looks like some wine tasting is in our future! Also, Miss Rosie has inflamed gums (around her snaggle tooth) so she'll be going to the vet on Monday. Fingers crossed she only needs antibiotics!

5 comments:

  1. That looks like a great place. We haven't stayed anywhere with good bike riding in quite awhile.
    Hope all goes well with Rosie's tooth problem.

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  2. Great shots and how neat to be there when the salmon are spawning.

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  3. Absolutely marvelous photos!

    Poor Miss Rosie

    NAPA! ohhhhhh, may I whine?

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  4. So good to hear the temps are only in the 80's. We didn't do too much hiking while there since it was 100 every day. We did walk from the park along one of the paved paths to the Sundial Bridge. Really neat bridge. It was very nice at night all lit up.

    You were there at a perfect time with salmon running. What a fantastic photo catching a salmon in flight! I am surprised how close to the edge of the creek they came. Neat experience.

    Hope Rosie is all right.

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  5. Oh so glad you made it and more and I see fall colors too and spawning salmon. What a treat. Sorry to hear about Rosie.

    Im not sure where in Napa you would be but in case you are heading thru Healdsburg, there is also a biking trail there too. Or if you go by San Jose/Morgan Hill area on your way south there are biking trails too. Have fun.

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