Life and all in Redding California
Did this TL yesterday. Turned out nice.
About 25 minutes drive on Interstate 5 north of Redding, you come across a spectacular sight. Granite spires rising through the forest to the west. This is Castle Crags State Park. Pull off the highway for hiking, camping, or just plain gazing upon the beauty of it all.
Technically, these are granite pluons. Molten granite has formed beneath the surface in these shapes, cooling more slowly than the rock around them. The spires are what you can see uncovered as the surface eroded around them. Seeing that, and realizing the time scale involved in their formation, one is left to ponder the insignificance of a single human lifetime in the face of geologic time. Yeah, it’s brief.
Music in the video is an Excerpt of “Eternal Path” by Craig Padilla and Skip Murphy (me) from the CD Phantasma on the Groove Unlimited label. Gobsmacking scenery courtesy of planet earth. It’s Really Redding.
A gorgeous 60 minute drive north from Redding will deliver you to the Mt Shasta Ski Park. It has always had a great family atmosphere, with parents dropping kids off for the day, and where you often met your neighbors and acquaintances.
This year, they added a new quad chair lift to the 8,000 ft Gray Butte, opening miles of new terrain. And in the process, this will make it much more of a destination ski resort. The ski park has had some rough years recently, fraught with drought and pandemic woes. So delicious to see it on an epic Saturday, with hundreds of people reveling under blue skies with perfect snow conditions! Let’s hope this terrific weather continues.
