2024 02 01 - Turtle Bay Park - Redding CA

Picture: Main entrance.

This place has a number of area's, we just walked on the trails through the arboretum and botanical garden area. There are 200+ acres but we didn't hit much of that in our <> hour long walk.

Parking is free and there must not have been any major events today as there were places to park. A good chance of rain may have also kept the crowds away. We went early and kept a watch both on radar and the clouds.

Picture: Sundial bridge.

The bridge works as an actual sundial, sort of. It is only accurate for four hours a day during the summer. It seems the landscape the rest of the year blocks an accurate reading.

Interesting.

And so was the bottom of the bridge. Those blue/green area's are glass. Luckily for me, the glass was dirty enough that all we could see was the frame of the bridge under us, not the water below.

The first time across it, I had my hand on the railing the whole time.

The trails we walked on were all on the other side, we did find out while walking that there are parking area's on that side of the bridge also. So next time ...

The trails we walked on had the little name plates of what was or is growing. It is still winter so most things are dormant.

The main trail is part of a 10 mile trail. Not sure how many miles of trail connect the area's of the arboretum. The trail seems to stay about the same distance above the river so not more than a few feet of elevation change. It looks like the main trail is paved, where we walked in the arboretum was not paved.

... and because we crossed this bridge once, we had to cross it again. (Crossing at the next bridge would have added MILES to our walk) This time across my wife was aware of where we were. Not sure what she was thinking about the first time across. This time she walked on one of the non-glass panels and hung onto my arm ... meaning I was walking on the glass without being able to hold on to the railing.

With 200 acres, next time we will find a path that does not include crossing this bridge again.