Redding, CA - Sundial Bridge

Redding, CA - Sundial Bridge -  Sept 11

I didn't mention it earlier but the trip through Crater Lake National Park was done by both Sylvia and me in a less than healthy condition. Somewhere between Dunes National Park and Crater Lake we both came down with really bad colds, with coughing, hacking, headaches, body aches, etc., so all we wanted to do was to get back to a larger city environment in case we needed medical attention, and just rest and recuperate for a few days. Crater Lake would not have been a good place if we needed to find a doctor. We were told that the nearest drug store was 32 miles away.

We drove to the next planned stop, Redding, California, the original planned stop for Lassen Volcanic NP. After getting there we heard from several people that that Lassen was similar, but a much less spectacular version of Yellowstone’s volcanic features that we had already seen, so we decided to just stay in the motorcoach to rest and recuperate.

Things could be worse. We were able to get the US Open Tennis on satellite TV, so we just laid around the couches watching tennis and resting, but both still had really bad coughs and body aches.  It was between 95 and 104 for most days that we were in Redding, so the air conditioners got a real workout.

We went out a couple evenings into Redding for groceries, and to to go see the ‘Sundial Bridge’. The bridge has a large beautifully formed mast that acts as a sundial with support wires for the suspension bridge. The bridge walking surface is made of translucent glass, lighted from beneath.

There are 'hour' stones at a circular walkway around the north plaza of the bridge spire (style) that indicate where the shadow of the spire is at the appropriate hour, thus the name Sundial Bridge. Of course it is only usable when the sun is shining and the sun was down by the time we got there. However, we were treated to an almost full moon..

The bridge sundial spire is a beautiful towering sculpture designed by Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava .

When you go under the bridge beneath the spire, there is an opening where you can see up for a different view of the spire with the night sky in the background.

Below is an aerial view picture of the bridge that I copied from the Sundial Bridge internet website so you can understand the Bridge and Sundial design concept better. This picture was apparently taken in the morning as the shadow is toward the west..

It was a very enjoyable ‘cool’ evening, with the temperature down around 78 degrees.  Nice trip to get out of the coach for a while.