This California canyon turns solid gold every fall, and most of Highway 395 drives right past the turnoff
A bird flying into California right now has been around since before humans existed, and it’s free to watch
This California mountain rises a vertical mile in just 3 miles from the Pacific, and the road up only opens half the year
California has five officially certified dark sky places, and one of the year’s best meteor showers peaks over them next Wednesday
This California lake was named after an 1871 prison break, and it’s one of the deepest in the Sierra Nevada
California’s coast holds the densest population of blue whales on Earth, and this is the best two months of the year to see one
This California tram climbs almost 6,000 feet in ten minutes, and it shuts down for a month right after Labor Day
This Yosemite hike ends with two steel cables bolted into bare granite, and they come down in about six weeks
San Francisco flooded one of Yosemite’s most beautiful valleys, and less than 1% of visitors ever go see what’s left
This California desert has 130 metal sculptures wandering free, and most of them aren’t actually dinosaurs
This California waterfall reopened after 2 wildfires shut it down for years, and it’s still crawling with ladybugs every winter
San Francisco Bay’s biggest island has zero cars, and it once earned the nickname “Ellis Island of the West”
This California basin has one of the hottest fumaroles on Earth, and it’s named after the guy who lost his leg finding it
California’s largest seabird colony lives 28 miles off San Francisco, and almost nobody’s allowed to set foot there
California’s hottest hot spring comes out of the ground at 194 degrees, and reaching it takes a two-day hike
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
