Unlike yesterday, we saddled up and headed out for a cruise through the areas east of Redding, CA. In accordance with past practice, the destination was quite nebulous at the beginning but resolved itself as we proceeded. We started out by getting on a rural two-lane road called Old Oregon Trail about a half mile from our park near I-5 and were treated to a delightful drive through both mountainous forested areas and massive pastures, most of them occupied by cattle browsing on the stubble. It was extremely dry here and looked like an errant spark could start a conflagration of epic proportions. There were many deer hanging out by the road and flying raptors above.

After a while we came to the intersection with State Highway 299 which is the main, and sometimes only, route from the coast over at Eureka and into the mountains at Alturas, over by the Nevada border and US-395. We we turned east on 299 at an elevation of about 1200 feet and passed through tiny communities called Bella Vista, Round Mountain, Montgomery Creek and Hillcrest before getting to 4000 feet and Burney, the first real town for about 60 miles. It is a gorgeous drive, although serpentine, through mixed conifer and hardwood forests. The hardwoods were putting on a gorgeous, colorful display of multi-colored foliage before going into their ugly, stick-like wintertime dormant phase.

We continued through Burney and a little community called Johnson Park before turning north on CA-89 to the McArthur-Burney Falls State Park where we coughed up the $10 entry fee to enter the park. We easily found a place to park in the almost empty parking lot before taking a very short walk to a spot on the edge of a deep gorge where we could see the fabulous Burney Falls. In the volcanic sedimentary rock in this region, water frequently finds funny ways to run downhill and Burney Falls is a superb example. The main falls cascade from the top of a cliff but about halfway down the abrupt cliff face, a much wider sheet of water has found a way through the sedimentary layers resulting in a curtain of water about 150 feet wide also falling into the 25 foot deep pool of crystal-clear water at the bottom. It is gorgeous. Teddy Roosevelt visited years ago and thought Burney Falls should be the Eighth Wonder of the World. This park was certainly worth the $10 we spent to be dazzled.

We spent quite a bit of time here because the waterfall and adjacent Lake Britton are so stunning. Eventually, however, we had to leave. We were in basically uncharted territory for us so we looked at the map and found a town that shares the name of Dana with our daughter. We headed a bit further north before turning east again on County Road A19, also known as McArthur Road, and after about 15 minutes pulled through Dana. It is a scattered community with houses visible in the flat distance and a defunct Dana Market which looked closed. This area is a massive high pasture between mountain ridges and is very scenic. We continued on A19 for another dozen miles before turning onto A20 which took us due south and back to CA-299 and another community called Fall River Mills. Unfortunately, we were running out of daylight by that point, especially since the sun had dropped below massive ridges to the west of us, so we turned back toward home on CA-299.

CA-299 is a treacherous, high speed, serpentine road with strenuous climbs and descents and it is also absolutely spectacular for roadside scenery.

We took a few pictures along the way and they can be seen by clicking the link. The fifth wheel trailer in one of the pictures is not ours. https://photos.app.goo.gl/chLvmHVN1PLV2RQx8