Walt Disney’s ski resort was supposed to go in this Sequoia valley, and the only road in won’t be finished until 2027
California’s own elk nearly vanished in the 1870s, and right now their bulls are bugling across this Marin County bluff
This Bay Area lighthouse hides behind a hand-carved tunnel, and the door only opens one Saturday a month
Male tarantulas are roaming this Bay Area mountain looking for love right now, and the females they’re after can live 25 years
This Route 66 volcano faked an eruption for a 1959 Hollywood film, and October opens the season to hike into it
This California mountain is made of volcanic glass, and it erupted from the biggest volcano in the Cascades less than 1,000 years ago
This Sierra foothills region turns into 50 apple orchards every fall, and it only exists because of a pear disaster
One Gold Country river hides three swimming holes worth a full day trip, and the water isn’t as calm as it looks
This free California slot canyon makes you climb hand-built ladders through the rock, and hikers put them there, not the state
This Santa Cruz hillside makes balls roll uphill, and UC Berkeley scientists needed a whole study to explain why
This California butterfly grove once glowed with tens of thousands of monarchs, and last winter it counted 471
This California park has been called the third-largest in the country for decades, and it’s actually 26th
This California cave stays a steady 46 degrees when it’s 100 outside, and it used to be a river of lava
This Napa County lake has a 72-foot drain built into it, and right now you can walk right up and look inside
This California waterfall drops 40 feet onto a beach, and the shortcut everyone uses to reach it isn’t a real trail
This California hike ends with 180 stairs bolted straight into a cliff, and the view is two alpine lakes at once
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
