There are few places on Earth where you can snowboard in the morning and surf after lunch but there is much more to California’s topography than lofty peaks and point breaks. Its landscape is hugely diverse, spanning extremes of desert, high mountains and epic wilderness. Its variegation goes some way to explaining why it boasts nine national parks and 279 state parks – more than any other state.
Star billing among the national parks usually goes to Yosemite, which pulls in around four million people a year, but there is so much quality to be found among the state’s headline natural wonders.
Up there with the very best is Sequoia National Park, east of Fresno and home to the largest tree in the world by volume, the venerable General Sherman. It’s also home to 4,421m Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States.
If you’re stopping overnight, Wuksachi Lodge in the heart of the park is the place to stay, but it is often booked out all summer. Nearby Montecito Sequoia Lodge and Stony Creek Lodge are good alternatives.
At the other extreme is Death Valley, the point of lowest elevation in North America. Despite that name, it is beautiful in spring and winter – full of desert blooms and surreal visual effects.
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For accommodation, max out with The Inn at Death Valley. This elegant oasis – with a tiled pool fed by spring water – was once an exclusive desert escape for Hollywood stars like Marlon Brando, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. More recently, it had a $155 million refit that added 22 casitas to stay in.
To the far south of the state, compact Joshua Tree National Park, aka J-Tree, has legendary status as home of the eponymous tree (a type of yucca) on the cover of U2’s biggest selling album. The park has a number of celebrated features including Cholla Cactus Garden, a prime spot to watch the sun rise, and two photogenic geological gems – Arch Rock (other arch rocks are available) and Skull Rock.
Camping is the only in-park option here. For a little more comfort and some welcome air-con, there’s the Spanish colonial-style Joshua Tree Inn. Or you could stay at The Desert Lily, a recently renovated holiday home in the town of Joshua Tree itself.
One of California’s lesser known natural stars is Lassen Volcanic National Park, near the northern end of the Sacramento Valley and capped by Lassen Peak – at 3,187m, the world’s largest volcanic dome. The surrounding landscape is an alien-looking playground filled with geysers, geothermal pools and weird rock formations.
For somewhere to stay, try the rustic but stylish Highlands Ranch Resort or pick a vintage cabin at Mill Creek Resort; both are a short drive from the park.
Sheer beauty
Of California’s nine national parks (more than any other state), Yosemite tops the bill
Desert wonders
Death Valley comes to life with blooms in spring and winter; Joshua Tree National Park found global fame on a certain massive album
Sonoma County, famed for its quaint towns, vineyards and towering forests, has some of California’s magnificent most wild beaches and rugged coastline. And from late December to March, some 20,000 gray whales migrate through the region to breed.
There are some fine cottages with great coastal views to be found online. Alternatively
Olema House sits on the outskirts of the nature reserve.
The national parks have a strong supporting cast of national forests and state parks. In the north that includes several huge, dense forests full of redwoods, including Six Rivers, Mendocino, Tahoe, Eldorado and Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, the southernmost point where you can see the gargantuan trees.
Bodie State Historic Park, once a vibrant 19th-century gold-mining community on the fringe of Nevada, is now an eerie ghost town of deserted buildings including a church, barbershop, saloon and schoolhouse. Don’t remove anything, whatever you do – there’s a curse.
For gorgeous geology, Providence Mountains State Recreation Area in the Mojave Desert is notable for spectacular limestone caves while Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, in eastern San Diego, peels apart at The Slot – a twisting siltstone canyon of narrow hikeable passages. Here the Earth’s crust is sliced open to reveal its inner layers, including a precarious-looking sceptre-shaped block bridging a gap.
California’s state and national parks provide a vast landscape to revel in. One of the best routes can be found along Highway 395, east of the High Sierra. It’s filled with scenic wonders – fields of volcanic rock, waterfalls and eerie limestone towers.
The route starts at Emerald Bay State Park on the western edge of Lake Tahoe, notable for its vivid turquoise water. Head south towards Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve to see its ghostlike towers and and explore the mountain town of Mammoth Lakes with its endless hiking trails, iconic jagged peaks and hidden hot springs. It sits in the Alabama Hills where countless movies have been made, including Star Trek: Voyager, How the West Was Won, Django Unchained and Iron Man. There’s an entire tour dedicated to it.
Stay at the Dow Villa Motel, a classic 1920s motor inn in the centre of Lone Pine, or search for a luxury cabin online.
This list can’t do justice to California’s deeply extraordinary landscape – but then, to see it all would take a lifetime.
Standing tall
A forest of giants in Sequoia National Park; and the vivid turquoise waters of Lake Tahoe
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CaLIFORNIAN road trips
CALIFORNIA DREAMING
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explore three Californian road trips