Red Hot Temps in Redding, California

How silly of me to complain about how cold it was in the Russian River Valley. We were getting cool breezes from the North Pacific Ocean. Like in the 50’s at night. And it was a damp cold. I chose to sit inside the RV in the evenings to stay out of the cold.

Then we left the Sonoma coast area and headed inland ending up in ridiculously hot Redding. Like 109 degrees! You would think it would be cooler as you head north, but that was not the case in Redding. We went from 58 degrees to 108 in half a day! This time I only sat outside the RV in the evenings. 

   

These are some vineyards we drove past in the Napa/Sonoma area:

We took advantage of the three days we stayed in Redding to get a wheel alignment done on Thor. We were happy to find a place that does alignment on large vehicles. The alignment was a little off and that had caused the front tires to wear unevenly. Imagine driving your house to a shop to get it worked on. That’s basically what we did. We left it there in the morning and loaded up Jack in the jeep and drove to nearby Lassen Volcanic National Park.

The temperature was about 15 degrees cooler in the higher elevation of the park so it was a good place to hang out. We drove through the park, stopping at various overlooks and picnic areas. 

There were some beautiful views in the park and it wasn’t very crowded which was nice. This 300-ton rock was a piece of the hot lava cap that rolled five miles from Lassen Peak when the volcano erupted in 1915.

Here is Mount Lassen:

Here is Jack swimming in what must have been a very cold lake, he didn’t stay in for long. 

We saw this “mudpot”, a vat of bubbling mud due to hot gasses escaping from the ground. Steam was rising from it as well as a foul odor. This used to be the site of a Sulphur Works.

We picked up our “house-on-aligned-wheels” in the afternoon and drove it back to our campsite where the air-conditioner worked overtime to cool it off after it had been sitting in the sun for six hours.

The next day we explored Lake Shasta Caverns. Shasta Lake is a beautiful, large lake with undeveloped shoreline. There’s lots of houseboat rentals on it. I didn’t have my phone with me that day so I have no pictures of it. Chris was in charge of photo-taking that day and he got lots of pictures, but all inside the caverns. So you’ll have to take my word for it, it’s a beautiful lake.

We took a nice tour of the Caverns, first by boating across the lake, then a bus ride up the mountain. As we entered the caverns a blast of cool moist air hit us, a very welcome relief from the heat.

We climbed through various rooms in the caverns and heard a story about a group called the Odd Fellows in the early 1900’s that initiated new members by leaving them in the caverns in the dark to find their way out. They succeeded by taking off their clothes and burning them and following the direction of the smoke which naturally found its way to the air in the opening.

Here are stalactites from the cavern and a picture of Mount Shasta as we drove by it the next day:

We stayed at Mountain Gate RV Park where the sites were tiered on different levels which provides nice views. This was sunset one night from our campsite.