This free L.A. County park hid an outlaw in 1874, and Captain Kirk fought an alien on it a century later
One of California’s tallest lighthouses has been closed for 25 years, and there’s still a very good reason to drive out to it
This Big Sur waterfall drops onto a beach nobody’s allowed to touch, and the trail to see it is closed with no reopening date
This California coastline is the longest undeveloped stretch outside Alaska, and three sections only open on the tide’s schedule
The lowest point in North America was once a 600-foot-deep lake, and now it’s covered in razor-sharp salt
California’s best hot springs all come from the same supervolcano, and one of them isn’t safe to swim in anymore
Sequoia’s most famous granite dome has 350 stairs carved into it, and the free shuttle to reach it stops running September 7
This California sand dune sings when you slide down it, and only six others in North America can say the same
California’s oldest county fair happens in a town built on butter money, and it’s five miles off Highway 101
California’s last dam-free river runs so clear you can count rocks 20 feet down, and August is when it looks best
You can still legally drive a truck onto this California beach, and a boardwalk two miles south bans cars entirely
This gold rush town in San Diego’s mountains never went bust, and you can still pan for gold where the miners did
This California waterfall hasn’t gone dry in a million years — and this summer, it added a reservation requirement
This California beach hosts 10,000 giant seals every year, and this spring they survived a first for the species
The highest point in the contiguous US is in California, and getting a permit is harder than the climb
This California canyon played Jurassic Park’s Lost World, and you can’t hike it without getting your feet wet
California’s biggest tree survived a wildfire wrapped in tinfoil, and it’s a half-mile walk from the parking lot
Lake Tahoe’s only island hides a Scandinavian castle, and parts of it were built without a single nail
The rocks at this Death Valley lakebed move on their own, and it took scientists decades to prove how
This Santa Cruz-area redwood forest used to be a 19th-century lime empire, and the kilns are still standing
This Southern California lake was briefly the largest man-made lake on Earth — here’s how to spend a summer day there
California’s best caving isn’t a guided tour — it’s a free permit and your pick of two dozen lava tubes
California’s least-visited national park is 80 miles from San Jose, and that’s exactly why it stays quiet
