Walkway of Redding
My impromptu holiday road trip to NorCal was wet, very wet, to say the least. A full solid week of rain & wind, totally drenched. Camping in the mud, not so fun. Meeting locals in Redding & Willow Creek were the highlights.
Pinnacles National Monument off of Hwy 101 & King City - was my first stop, where I paid a whopping $27 to camp. The most expensive overnight in a park I can ever recall. Motel 6 might have been a better choice, since the temps dipped to 26 degrees that night.
Up in Redding I opted for a cheap hotel, downtown. Walked in the drizzle to find an open restaurant & Sunday night is not a big out-to-dinner night up here, so I had trouble locating a meal. Johnnie's Bar was lit up with neon, looked new & had a Santa ping pong tournament going on. I stopped in for a bite & met Larry, a local who introduced me to his whole crew. A blues/jazz band set up around 7pm & they were pretty decent!
The next day I grabbed Huevos Rancheros at the only Mexican place in town, took care of business at the post office & headed over to meet Layne (AppleCrisp thru Flickr). We were amazed that the sun actually broke out for a few hours & decide to take a walk around the Sundial Bridge park. Hubby James & dog tagged along. A very nice visit that ended short, as I wanted to head westbound & find a camp spot, before the next storm moved in.
I ended up IN the storm at 3000' elevation with snow & no chains. Even with AWD I was having problems staying on the highway, so I opted to call it a night at 6pm in Willow Creek. I ended up staying days enjoying this town over the holiday, meeting some cool locals and exploring Hwy 96, up to Happy Camp.
Pinnacles National Monument off of Hwy 101 & King City - was my first stop, where I paid a whopping $27 to camp. The most expensive overnight in a park I can ever recall. Motel 6 might have been a better choice, since the temps dipped to 26 degrees that night.
Up in Redding I opted for a cheap hotel, downtown. Walked in the drizzle to find an open restaurant & Sunday night is not a big out-to-dinner night up here, so I had trouble locating a meal. Johnnie's Bar was lit up with neon, looked new & had a Santa ping pong tournament going on. I stopped in for a bite & met Larry, a local who introduced me to his whole crew. A blues/jazz band set up around 7pm & they were pretty decent!
The next day I grabbed Huevos Rancheros at the only Mexican place in town, took care of business at the post office & headed over to meet Layne (AppleCrisp thru Flickr). We were amazed that the sun actually broke out for a few hours & decide to take a walk around the Sundial Bridge park. Hubby James & dog tagged along. A very nice visit that ended short, as I wanted to head westbound & find a camp spot, before the next storm moved in.
I ended up IN the storm at 3000' elevation with snow & no chains. Even with AWD I was having problems staying on the highway, so I opted to call it a night at 6pm in Willow Creek. I ended up staying days enjoying this town over the holiday, meeting some cool locals and exploring Hwy 96, up to Happy Camp.
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| Sundial Bridge is quite the impressive sight and totally worth a visit. |