As one of Northern California’s crossroads, Redding was long a place to stop and fill up, with its restaurants then known as being more filling than fulfilling. That rep is changing with the arrival of Rivers Restaurant, a modern curve of glass and steel on a bluff overlooking a bend in the Sacramento River.

Rivers has brought showmanship to Redding, in its architecture and expansive views of the river and Mount Shasta (including a glimpse of Santiago Calatrava’s Sundial Bridge) and inventive presentations of comfort food.

Chef Cal DeMercurio takes “food you grew up eating” like “Mac-n-Cheese” and serves them in unexpected forms… an iceberg lettuce salad that’s been mesquite grilled, pulled pork made from Korean-styled meat, Chilean sea bass smoked over applewood and served on a bed of Gorgonzola cheese polenta and beef entrees, of course. After all, this is Redding where construction workers’ plates of steak and prime rib have been overflowing since Shasta Dam was built in the 1930s.

Still the standard for carnivores in Redding is Jack’s Grill, which since 1938 has been serving 10- and 16-ounce U.S.D.A. prime choice New York, Filet Mignon and Top Sirloin steaks. The Market Street Steakhouse is Redding’s upstart eatery, attracting a younger crowd than Jack’s for Kobe steaks and porterhouse, in addition to the standards. Of course, not everything eaten in Redding is red meat.

Buz’s Crab serves Red Snapper and almost every conceivable type of seafood. Though located 140 miles from the sea, inland Buz’s is the nation’s largest distributor of Dungeness crabs, shipping the arthropods to crab feeds far and wide.

For more about dining in Redding, CLICK HERE.

California Guest Services (CGS), which operates concessions in Lassen Volcanic National Park, is among four companies recently honored by the National Park Service (NPS) for environmental achievement.

The Red Bluff company received an honorable mention in the 2007 NPS Environmental Achievement Awards for its Green Buying program in which the NPS said it “significantly improved its purchases of environmentally friendly products” in food and beverage operations, serviceware and supplies, retail items, and janitorial and housekeeping.

Among its many environmental efforts, CGS was recognized for serving only organic, fair-trade certified and shade-grown coffess in all its concession operations, a change so well received by its guests that it expanded its use of these coffees to all its operations beyond Lassen Volcanic National Park. CGS strove to support local vendors by locating locally grown and manufactured products, such as Pacific Sun Olive Oil, a woman-owned, family-run, sustainable farming operation near Chico. CGS was cited such actions as helping in reducing the impact from trucking and shipping while benefitting the local economy.

Other CGS actions commended by the National Park Service included replacing plastic cups with Greenware Cups, removing 2,000 non-degradable plastic cups from the waste stream by switching to biodegradable, recycled, chlorine-free, compostable cups for use in hotel rooms, and replacing over 10,000 less environmentally preferable cups in retail operations. Similar actions replaced grocery bags, firelogs, insect candles, soap and janitorial supplies with more environmentally sensitive materials.

Of the four companies honored by the National Park Service this year, CGS was the only company not owned by the large National Park Service concessionaire, Xanterra Parks & Resorts. CGS is an operating company of The California Parks Companies, a family-owned company based in Red Bluff, Calif.

For more about the company and its operations, visit www.drakesbad.com and www.calparksco.com

CLICK HERE to see sunset on a houseboat at Shasta Lake.

CLICK HERE to see the new Yurts at Shasta Lake.

Marshall Pike takes us jet skiing on Shasta Lake on one hot waverunner!

 Hot Jet Ski: Download