The Sundial Bridge at Turtle Bay is the best-known landmark in Redding, the biggest city in far northern California, and the river trail running past it is where a lot of locals walk, run and bike. The city has about 94,000 people on the Sacramento River, roughly 160 miles up the valley from Sacramento. It started as a railroad town and today works as the gateway to the Shasta Cascade country.
Day to day it feels like a spread-out, practical town with chain shopping on the hilltop and a downtown that is slowly coming back. Visitors mostly use it as a base. Shasta Lake and the dam, the waterfalls at Whiskeytown and Lassen Volcanic National Park are all a short drive away, and the river is good for fishing and rafting. Housing is affordable for California, but summers are hot (well over 100 degrees is normal), and wildfire smoke and insurance costs are real concerns. Property crime runs above the state average, so keep valuables out of your car.
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- Known as
- Gateway to Shasta Cascade; Home of the Sundial Bridge; Shasta County seat; Northern California's largest city north of Sacramento
- Founded
- 1872 founded as a railroad town (Central Pacific Railroad); 1887 incorporated
- Languages
- English; Spanish; smaller communities speaking Hmong, Punjabi and Tagalog
- Airports
- Redding Municipal (RDD), about 7 miles southeast, limited commercial service; Sacramento International (SMF), about 160 miles south; Chico Municipal (CIC) is about 90 miles south, general aviation and limited service
- Tipping
- Restaurants 18-20%; bars $1-2 per drink; taxis and rideshare 15-20%; hotel housekeeping $3-5 per night; bellhops $2-5 per bag; counter service optional
About this data
Population 94,092 (Census Vintage 2025) and land area 59.65 sq mi, median home value and gross rent from Census QuickFacts. Metro figure 181,121 is the Redding MSA (Shasta County) from citypopulation.de citing Census estimates, year of estimate not confirmed. Elevation, coordinates, founding, event names and months, hotel ranges, tipping, cost of living, real estate market price and crime are approximate or from general knowledge and not verified; lower confidence. Official URLs seen in search results but not load-tested.
