By Mara Dobyns
Imagine a place where you can explore, interactively play, learn, and discover all in one place. Now you don’t have to imagine. Welcome to Turtle Bay, home to a museum telling stories from all over the world through art, science, history, forestry, and horticulture. Animal programs that aim to inspire wonder, create connections, and grow appreciation for wildlife through their conservation, education, and entertainment. A forest Camp featuring an outdoor playground, water features, an amphitheater, wildlife exhibits, and more. Not to mention the Sundial Bridge located on the grounds of Turtle Bay which is a world-famous pedestrian bridge that crosses over the Sacramento River connecting the north and south campus of the park and is free to access all year. Gardens sit on the north side of the sundial bridge and often host their Christmas themed Garden of Lights exhibit and more recently a Glowing Wild Lantern Festival, featuring 10 acres of illuminated wildlife displays inspired by Asian lanterns and showcasing plants and animals from around the world.
Turtle Bay is family-friendly fun at its finest and is sure to entertain all ages. During summer months animal lovers can enjoy their butterfly house, a fun and lively walk on the wild side animal show, and the Cats & Dogs Exhibition that is an interactive journey into the scientific, sociological, and cultural knowledge of our furry friends. It uses an interactive and sensory matrix of games and simulations that put you in the animal’s “shoes”. How cool is that?!
There are plenty of year round exhibits and opportunities as well and my family loved seeing the science of a snowflake and learning more about winter when we visited in December. It’s such a beautiful location on the river and we took advantage of the park’s restaurant being so close before we ventured on to see the Garden of Lights. The gift shop was hard to walk away from but we loved looking at all the unique finds they offer from honey sticks to engaging learning games, stuffed animals and beyond. We learned that they even offer lower sensory days where they dim the lights and limit the amount of visitors to welcome those that may suffer from sensory issues. I love how considerate and thoughtful they are and how creative and well designed the park was. With so much to see and do we should probably already be planning our next visit. If you get the opportunity to explore Turtle Bay I highly recommend taking full advantage of it.
Oh and did I mention that two restaurant options are available next to the museum? The Mosaic Restaurant and the Branch House Riverfront Bistro. The Sheraton Redding Hotel is also conveniently located within the grounds and is even pet friendly. It is a truly thought out and well rounded experience, making it even more of a must see gem in Northern California.
For hours, admission fees, current exhibits, events, discovery camps, educational programming, field trip information, donations, volunteering,
membership inquiries, gift shop hours, hotel, dining, and general information, please visit their website: https://www.turtlebay.org
For info and tickets to Glowing Wild – An Illuminated Wildlife Lantern Festival at the Sundial Bridge in 2025 visit: https://www.glowingwild.org
