20

The Mess Left After the Flooding: Turtle Bay East Open Space

The Open Space in Redding is a place for biking, jogging, fishing and an area where you can let your dogs run off leash – as long as they’re controllable.

The Open Space has two sections. The main section is to the south of Highway 44. And to the north of Highway 44 is another area that was completely under water due to flooding. You couldn’t even get to that other side for a couple weeks because of flooding under Highway 44. And anyway, if you did get to the other side, you’d be swimming.

The main section of the Open Space had flooding, also. But most of it escaped flooding because it sits so high above the river. However, there were a few spots that were flooded along the river’s side. I’d like to share those with you. And now that the river is down, I was able to go under Highway 44 and take pictures of the mess the flooding left behind over there.

The past few years, a lot of planting has been done in both areas. They use to call this Turtle Bay East Arboretum. But a lot of work has to be done now on the north side and I hope they’ll have the funds to get it done.

Here’s the Open Space parking lot area with gazebo.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 01

The trails are made of decomposed granite. So they don’t flood when it rains. They’re great for traffic.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 02 Turtle Bay East Open Space 03 Turtle Bay East Open Space 04

The far south end has an area with bike jumps. They haven’t been maintained or used in the past three years like they were once enjoyed.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 05

Looking north over the bike jumps, the Sacramento River is just off to the left of the picture. Normally it’s several feet down the side of this area.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 06

Here, the Sacramento River comes right up to the trail when the river was at its highest point. Bodie helps us demonstrate.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 07

Now, the river is down. You get the idea. Pay attention to those two thin three trunks.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 08

Here’s another view of flooding in the same place.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 09

You can see how far down the river is. Bodie’s at the river’s edge. And the river is still higher than normal. I hope this gives you an idea how far the Sacramento River rose.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 10

Here’s a picnic table. I took this picture late when it was getting dark. Notice how the river flows over the seats.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 11

Now, the river is starting to go down. The water is at the base of the picnic table. In the center of the photo between the brush, there’s a trail that goes down quite a ways because we’re still up high. But you can’t tell yet there’s a trail going down to where the river normally flows.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 12

But this photo gives you a better idea. This is where the river was when I took this photos, but it still has several more feet to go down.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 13

When the Sacramento River was at its highest, you couldn’t even get close to going under Highway 44 to the north section of Turtle Bay’s East Arboretum Open Space. Can you see where the fence ends in the center of the photo? That’s where the trail curves right to go under Highway 44.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 14

Today with the river down, you can get a better idea of the flooding.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 15

This is Highway 44 above my head.  Normally, the Sacramento River flows just past those front pillars. The river is still several feet above ‘so called’ normal.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 16

After you go under Highway 44, you come to the entrance of the north section of the arboretum. Most of the nice decomposed granite paths are washed away. So was this kiosk. But it was put back into place. It’s hard to tell there was a trail to the left of the kiosk.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 17

Bodie knew things were different. The smells were off. He must’ve been wondering what had changed. The area almost looks like a fire went through.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 18

Waterlines beneath the trails were uprooted and tossed around.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 19

Debris from the river was everywhere.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 20

Bodie spent time getting use to the new smells among the debris.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 21

Most of the trails were completely washed away. You couldn’t even tell where they were supposed to be. Rocks were tossed around with the river’s current.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 22 Turtle Bay East Open Space 23

See that sawed-off tree trunk? A man I met there told me when the flood waters were high, he was standing on the Sundial Bridge and noticed that same tree trunk go under the Sundial Bridge and flow downstream. He was so surprised to see that it later turned up here.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 24

This is the same tree trunk. But I put an arrow in the center of the photo to show where the Sundial Bridge is. The river flows to the right (east) and makes a curve to the right and flows south past here. The tree trunk must’ve been slammed up into this area on the turn.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 25

Bodie looked confused to me here. We were both trying to figure out which way the trail went. Maybe I was the only one confused. There sure were a lot of rocks to walk over.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 26

Several trees were down. This tree made a hut that a homeless person might turn into shelter.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 27

Everywhere you go, you see waterlines flung all over the place, making a huge mess that has to be cleaned up someday.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 28

It was hard to find the little markers with colorful flags on them, showing where things had been planted in the arboretum.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 29

These workers pointed out debris in the trees. I put an arrow by some of the debris hanging from a branch. I wonder how deep the flooding actually got here by the picnic table. I’m 6’2” and the top of the debris was about 8 inches above my head.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 30

This kiosk still needs to be repositioned. The kiosks have metal posts that were set in cement. It was nothing for the river to uproot and reposition them.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 31

Bodie had a duck in his sights. Wishful thinking.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 32

Now … this boulder was never here. It shows the power of the river.  And we’re getting quite a ways back from the river in this area.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 33

This photo was taken on the far eastern edge of the flooding. You can see the flooding ended where the green grass begins. I like the wicked looking creature in the background.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 34 Turtle Bay East Open Space 35

Again … the river completely ruined the decomposed granite pathways.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 36

Rocks were tossed everywhere.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 37

Back in the main section of the Open Space, even though areas were flooded, the dogs still had a great time.

Turtle Bay East Open Space 38

Steve DuBois

For many years Steve DuBois has enjoyed taking photos of his dogs in interesting and unusual places. He created a photo book of his dogs especially for the children at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where he donated several copies. He loves that the kids enjoy seeing his dogs photographed in unusual ways. Steve says his dogs have been his photographic inspiration and motivation, but sometimes he tries his hand at nature shots, such as the photos he captured of the north state’s 2017 flooding, published here on A News Cafe.com. Steve DuBois lives in Redding.

20 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments