If you are planning to use a Radio Lab jeep, you first must get to the UC Berkeley campus. To do this, you have two choices:

Limo or Taxi
• From Oakland (OAK) or San Francisco (SFO) Airports, you can take a BayPorter Express shuttle for about $20. A taxi from SFO is $50+, from OAK is $30+.

Public Transportation (Bay Area Rapid Transit)

• From OAK, take Air-BART shuttle to the Coliseum/Oakland Airport BART station, then BART to Downtown Berkeley Station.
• From SFO, take the SamTrans bus to the Colma or Daly City BART stations, then BART to Downtown Berkeley Station. (SFO to Colma is an express route.)

Once at the Downtown Berkeley BART station, for 25 cents you can ride a UC Berkeley shuttle bus to Campbell Hall (Hearst Mining Circle), saving you from lugging your stuff up the hill. You can get on the shuttle bus at the Bank of America across from the BART station.

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In the table below are  driving directions to Hat Creek Radio Observatory from the University of California, Berkeley campus.  They use the so-called "short cut" through Manton.  To see a detail map of any step, follow  its Show me link. The total distance is 265 miles; total driving time is 4.5 to 5 hours.  If you do not wish to take the short cut which requires many turns, you take one of two alternate, longer routes through Redding.

After a snowfall, Rte. 299 is more likely to be open than Rte. 44-- call for conditions or check the following web sites. If Rte. 44 is closed, you must take the long way via Rte. 299.

• Redding weather radar
• California highway conditions
• Route 44 through Shingletown specifically
• Route 299 through Burney specifically

We have prepared an overview map of Northern California with all three routes highlighted (GIF format) and  a higher quality map of the entire state with no highlighting (PDF format; requires free Adobe Acrobat). Also available is a map of the Hat Creek site.

There are two alternate routes through Redding, if you do not take the Red Bluff to Shingletown shortcut.  Each of these add at least 1/2 hour to the drive.

1. "The long way."  Continue past Red Bluff on I-5 N to Redding. At Redding, take the Rte. 299 East/Lake Blvd exit towards Burney/Alturas. Keep right at the fork in the ramp. Five (5) miles past Burney, you will come to an intersection with major flashing traffic lights. Turn right onto Rte. 89. Continue on Rte. 89 for 9.4 miles, turn left on Doty Rd. Left on Bidwell Rd to the Observatory.
   
   
2. "The middle way." Continue past Red Bluff on I-5 N to Redding. At Redding, take Rte 44 East to Shingletown (26.2 miles). Follow the listed directions above from there.

If you get lost, the phone number for HCRO is (530) 335-2364.

And finally, a word about grocery shopping:

• If you take the short cut, the last large grocery stores are in Red Bluff. Two are Railey's (address??) and Food 4 Less (on Rte 36 just after the I-5 off-ramp).  Don't go to the Holiday grocery further down the road--too expensive.
• If you take the long way, the last large grocery store is Safeway in Burney (1630 Main St).
• If you take the middle way (#2 above), you can choose from a number of grocery stores in Redding. Two are Safeway (1191 Cypress Ave, take the East Cypress Ave exit off I-5 ) and Food 4 Less,  (1330 Churn Creek Rd, off the Hilltop Drive exit.)