Why You Should Head North for the Summer

If you love California and don’t know where to go for summer vacation, here’s a suggestion: Go north! Start in Redding. Sure, the city of 92,000 at the northern end of the Sacramento Valley might not be on your list of preferred destinations, but its region, the Northstate, is crucial to understanding California. And as a vacation spot, it has practical advantages — cheaper and less crowded than the coast, and cooler than the deserts.

Is there really anything to do in Redding? You bet. For one thing, you can visit California’s greatest 21st-century structure, the Sundial Bridge.

Sure, the Golden Gate Bridge is more beautiful, but the Sundial, which opened in 2004, combines a stunning look with technological magic. Part of the 710-foot-long span’s appeal lies in the “goose in flight” design by the world’s leading architect of bridges, the Spaniard Santiago Calatrava. The glass-decked bridge has a 217-foot-tall pylon that, via cables, holds up the structure while casting a shadow that makes it a sundial.

Another dimension of its power comes from its setting: It spans California’s grandest river, the Sacramento, at a spot 300 miles upriver from where its waters reach San Pablo Bay. Tight-fisted locals still grumble over the $24 million price tag. But the span is already an icon, connecting Redding’s robust network of trails and providing another amenity for Turtle Bay, Redding’s 300-acre, education-oriented park.

The bridge has another virtue: proximity, via a short drive or longer bike ride along the Sacramento River Trail, to California’s most beautiful waterwork. The Shasta Dam makes news for controversy over whether to raise it so more water can be stored in Lake Shasta, California’s largest reservoir. But the dam is also a place of unsurpassed beauty, especially at sunset, where people walk, bike, or admire the magisterial view.

One recent evening at the dam, I was greeted by the graduating class of U-Prep, or University Preparatory School, a top Redding school. They were flirting, reminiscing and saying their goodbyes before beginning their adult lives. The dam, too, feels like a start, the front gate where California really begins.

Breaking away would be fiscally disastrous for a poor region. But if Northstate people must secede, I say go for it — on three conditions. First, don’t take all our water with you. Second, link your statehood bid with Puerto Rico’s statehood campaign, to give the disaster-decimated island more power.

And finally, make sure Californians can keep visiting as often as we like.