Redding and Shasta Lake in California

Discussion in 'On The Road Again' started by Macanudo, Mar 21, 2008.

  1. Macanudo

    Macanudo 2,500+ Posts

    Anyone been there? My grandfather is turning 80 in April and we're going to head down. There isn't a whole lot hotel wise and since we'll need two rooms, I'm looking at vacation rentals around Mt. Lassen (on the west side of the mountain), Red Bluff and Shasta Lake.
     
  2. hornphil

    hornphil 25+ Posts

    I don't have any recommendations for where to stay.. but I wouldn't bother looking in Red Bluff. It's just an I-5 gas stop in the valley.

    Redding is nice enough for a larger-size town.. but I imagine you could find a better vacation rental on one of the lakes (Whiskeytown is another fairly close by), or in one of the mountain towns closer to Shasta or Lassen. There are mountains on three sides.. but Redding on down is valley (and hot as hell during the summer).
     
  3. zork

    zork 2,500+ Posts

    We visited the area after flying into SF, drove over to Sacramento, up to redding, and then over to the coast across teh scenic highway 299 due west of Redding. That last scenic drive was cool but took about 4 hours due to the twisting roads and hills. Great terrain, views, and it rained, had high winds, snowed also too when we went through the pass before heading down towards Eureka. We stayed in the very quiet, victorian, village of Ferndale for a few days after that.(lots of access to redwood country and scenic drives around there too)

    However, before making the treck west from redding we decided to check out teh lake shasta and mt shasta area for future trips.

    what we saw of the shasta lake area, it is a dump but it was also before the summer season too when we were there. mt shasta is further north but better in terms of couth and a bit more hippy, less trailer-trashy(we said we would try and find a place up there instead on the next trip).

    It was late april when we drove through Lassen so the snow kept us away from any civilization towards that way. Redding had a big wal-mart to restock the cooler, picnic supplies, etc, but we didn't look for accomodations there.

    there are places in mt shasta and all along the road down to lake shasta too.
     
  4. hornphil

    hornphil 25+ Posts

    we did that 299 drive from redding to eureka last summer, too. winding, but cool as hell. california just has so many incredible places you don't hear much about. a lot of gorgeous places in northern cali tend to be kinda dumpy from an accommodation standpoint, however.

    we tried to go up lassen, but it was calf-deep snow. the rest of the area is cool. six hours later i was standing in the pacific.
     
  5. Macanudo

    Macanudo 2,500+ Posts

    We're staying in Redding proper. After looking at the options, I went ahead and booked at the Holiday Inn in town. The Shasta Lake area houses/rentals were all 60-90 minutes from town and it just looked like a hassle. When we have more time, we'll try the scenic routes in and out of the area. I hoping to make another trip down there this summer and if so, we'll hit Crater Lake.
     

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