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14 reviews for Turtle Bay Exploration Park
Certainly the best natural history museum in the area. Some of the ethnographic-themed exhibits are very good. My sisters, who volunteered here for years, told me that in making the exhibit on the Wintu Indians, for example, the museum worked closely with the tribe for input, which is of course the responsible thing to do. [It's been my experience that tribes are too often left out and not given input into representations of...themselves.] So, kudos. The outdoor walks and exhibits involving animals are pretty cool, too.
I can't quite give 5 stars, because I feel that admission is overpriced.
I enjoyed my visit to Turtle Bay Exploration Park. I found everything about the facility to be impressive from the museum to the convenient parking area. The layout of the park is also very practical. The whole place was well maintained and the employees were nice. I saw the Lego exhibit when I was there and thought that it was fantastic! I'm also a big fan of botanical gardens, so I had a good time looking at all of the different display gardens. Sundial Bridge was beautiful and more modern looking than I had expected. I think that this place is enjoyable for visitors of all ages.
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Really? People like this place? I was expecting something great based on the reviews, but this place was not that great. I think it is pretty dumb that once you pay for general admission there are more things inside that you have to pay for like to feed the birds. I also thought it was lame that the big flower garden place was an additional entrance fee. And since this place is called "Turtle Bay" I think there should have been more turtles! Save your money!
Enjoyed the visit. Nice facility! Did not expect it to be as nice as it is and ended up spending a good part of the day looking at the exhibits and walking the grounds. Pleasantly surprised by the aquarium; you can see the fish very well.
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I can't believe Redding has something this awesome. My family has a membership, and we love going to see the new exhibits. We go, at least, once a month. Everytime our extended family comes to visit, we show this place off to them. We love the bridge, gardens and the trails, too.
Cute place, a lot nicer than I was expecting! I grew up in Sacramento so a lot of the exhibits were old hat for me (I lived near the American River and Effie Yeaw Nature Center has a lot of stuff on river habitats and American Indians), but it's well maintained, and the underwater river aquarium is neat to look at. The current special gecko exhibition was really cool -- who knew there were so many kinds of geckos?
They have some birds in a small aviary -- the red-tailed hawk looked a little penned up, actually, and kept trying to fly around and hang from the sprinkler pipes when folks were staring at him. They've also got a barn owl who is imprinted on humans and keeps screeching at you nonstop because he thinks you'll give him treats. Heh.
Big bummer: Butterfly exhibit is closed for the winter. Alas!
If I lived nearby, I'd certainly take the kids, if I had kids. There's a bunch of cute things to do in "Paul Bunyan's Forest" and I bet several kids of my acquaintance would spend hours playing with the water feature where you can dam off the flow of water on a flume using plastic boards.
The gift shop actually has some nice stuff that's reasonably priced, and not just cheap plastic crap with the museum logo slapped on it. I actually found a nice necklace in there and bought it to remember my vacation by -- silver with amethyst, peridot, and citrine. Cute!
The Sundial Bridge is worth a gander. Make sure to go underneath it -- a nice cool place to sit and rest for a little while.
Anyway, it's a good stop on the way back from Ashland, though I don't know if I would make it a yearly destination. Maybe on a cooler day I would have spent time roaming the botanical gardens, so next time that might be something to do.
I am impressed that Turtle Bay exists in Redding!
There is nothing to not like about Turtle Bay. The gardens and the trails are so wonderful to walk on! It's a great place to take family and friends when they come to visit!
Spent a few quick hours at Turtle Bay on the way to Lassen Volcanic National Park. The grounds appear clean and well-maintained. The museum is small but very nice with varied and informative displays. We saw the "T-Rex named Sue" display, which wasn't worth the extra $5 in my opinion. There is a nice animal show and a nice Paul Bunyan play area for the kids [providing it's not too hot to play]. There is a Butterfly habitat exhibit complete with new age music. One not so great thing is the $1 charge to go into the bird enclosure. A dollar isn't a lot, but one doesn't want to open his or her wallet again. The Arboretum is free, but we didn't feel like trudging back over [the impressive Sundial bridge] and looking at the plants in 95 degree weather. It's worth a visit and probably worth buying a membership if you live in the area and have kids.
I am really impressed by Turtle Bay.
Correction: I am really impressed that Redding has a place like Turtle Bay.
I have been to a lot of museums in my day. For the most part, Turtle Bay doesn't really offer anything new to me. However, it definitely offers something new to Redding.
I never really considered Redding to be anything other than a cultural void. But I think it's fantastic that they've made such an effort to create something unique. It started with the Sundial Bridge, which is DEFINITELY unique (apparently a lot of people thought the Sundial Bridge was going to be a waste of money--I totally disagree. It turned out great.). They expanded from there, and now there's a museum with a lot of outdoor activities and indoor exhibits.
My family and I were there for the Titanic artifacts exhibit, which was super cool. I also recommend the indoor fish area, where they have fish (mostly native, but some not) in a display that looks like the Sacramento River. There's also a butterfly exhibit.
Negatives? I felt sorry for the birds. They have an exhibit with several large birds--hawks, large owls, and a turkey vulture--and their cages are too small.
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Here's your reason to go to Redding!
What a cool place with such pretty surroundings! My favorite part other than the butterfly exhibit was their interactive display where you can stock your wagon for the Oregon trail. Let me play with a fake 5 pound bag of coffee and some hard tack and I will be happy all day. Nothing entertains me like the idea of packing up a wagon and venturing out through the mountainside....
The buildings and grounds are really well maintained and the cost of entry is pretty reasonable. Their cafe seemed to have a lot of great selections & their coffee wasn't bad.
You can take that and go down to the water by the bridge and get your feet wet, if you're so inclined! Fun!
We came on a stormy day in October with our four year old daughter. It was hard to be outside (and I was impressed that they had loaner umbrellas) but the interior exhibits were well done. Much is more accessible to older children, of course, but we loved the river aquarium and the cave leading down to it.
The wetlands restoration is terrific and exemplifies what can be done along so much more of the Sacramento. It was cool to stand on the Sundial bridge and watch flyfishers working the waters upstream.
This is wonderful natural history exhibit and well worth a stop along I-5. I also want to compliment the friendy and helpful staff. They went out of their way to find out that we could enter on a reciprocable membership in a museum at home and to recommend a McDonalds where our daughter could play before we continued our trip.
I'm so proud that Redding has such a great museum that the whole family can enjoy. The exhibitions change all the time, keeping it interesting for regular visitors. Turtle Bay is also located right next to the Sundial Bridge, which is FREE and very beautiful. You cannot visit Redding without seeing.
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Great museum for Redding, wish this place would of existed when I was a child. Son loved the fish exhibit, got to see staff feed the fish which was cool. Beautiful location and with nearby Sundial bridge, a great day outing with the family. Bring a picnic lunch rather than go to the cafe!
Growing up I never could have imagined that this area of the Sacramento River would ever be anything other than covered in brambles. Was I wrong! Redding has done a great job making Turtle Bay an intersting, fun place to be. The frog exhibit I saw rocked!
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