Highway 101, Orick, CA, Redwood National Park, Phone: 70Ĭalled “The Smiles of Gods” by the native Modoc people who first settled the area, the Modoc National Forest is located in northeastern California and is a 1,654,392-acre diverse and mountainous area full of pine forests, lakes, meadows, streams, canyons, wetlands, lava beds, and vast high desert plateaus. The Klamath overlook offers a fantastic spot to watch passing whales. Take a hike through the massive redwood groves, visit pristine sandy beaches and quaint little hamlets like Klamath, where the Klamath river spills into the sea. Sequoias are the tallest species of tree on Earth and can live up to 3,000 years.īesides sequoias, the parks also protect grassland prairie, rivers, streams, animals, and other plants living in this ecosystem, many of them endangered or threatened, as well as 37 miles of pristine unspoiled coastline. Together, they cover 139,000 acres and protect 45 percent of all globally remaining coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) forests. ![]() Redwood National and State Parks is a group of four old-growth temperate rainforests located along the coast of Northern California: Redwood National Park, Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Parks. Humboldt Ave., Willows, CA 95988, Phone: 53, ( website link) There are four miles of trails offering great views of Mount Lassen, Mount Shasta and the Yolla Bolly Mountains. From 750 feet in the Grindstone Creek Canyon in the foothills of the Sacramento Valley to the 8,092 feet of South Yolla Bolly Mountain, the elevation changes dramatically and with it the flora and wildlife at home there.Ĭheck out the rustic old Pine Mountain Lookout at 4,000 feet, surrounded by dense pine and fir forest, or visit the Red Bluff Recreation Area where you will find a mix of oak forests, grasslands covered with wildflowers, wetlands and the cool, clear Sacramento River, home to 125 species of birds and many wild animals. The Mendocino National Forest, only a three-hour drive north of San Francisco, is 913,306 acres of mountains and canyons in the coastal mountain range, luring those who seek solitude and quiet. ![]() © Courtesy of Mendocino National Forest. Take a walk through towering red fir and pine forests, flowering dogwood and dwarf willows, enormous ancient sequoias, pass spectacular waterfalls and cool brooks.Īnd once you leave the valley, you will not have to worry about the four million people that come to the park each year, you can be as alone as you wish, just you and nature. It is surrounded by enormous walls of towering domes and pinnacles, with El Capitan, the world’s largest exposed granite monolith, towering above the valley.įrom here, you can take one of the many marked trails that offer 800 miles of hiking through the park, from easy walks through forests to week-long endurance tests up the High Sierras.Īlong the way, you can spot the chipmunks, mule deer, brush rabbits, marmots, and warblers. Start your exploration in the valley, a one-mile-wide and seven-mile-long canyon created by a river and shaped by glaciers. The most famous, and the oldest, national park in the world, Yosemite National Park in north California is 1,200 square miles of some of nature’s most beautiful creations, from deep valleys, wildflower-covered meadows, and 3,000-year-old giant sequoias to the vast High Sierra Mountains wilderness and thundering waterfalls that dry up in August, and so much more. You can visit the house of Henry Miller, today a memorial library, McWay Falls and Cove, Bixby Creek Bridge, many small, quaint inns and restaurants, small picturesque beaches that are not easy to access but well worth it, and a richness of rare plants and animals. Artists and writers discovered the area in the 1950s and ‘60s, finding inspiration in the rugged beauty and untamed wilderness. The whole wild and misty area is very sparsely populated and offers great opportunities for hiking, beach combing, exploring, whale watching, and camping. Most tourists see this romantic scenic area from the narrow State Route 1, which winds and turns beside steep seaside cliffs, offering lookout points every now and then. ![]() ![]() One of the most scenic California weekend getaways, Big Sur is a spectacularly beautiful stretch of California's central coast located between Carmel and San Simeon, snuggled between the steep slopes of the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Pacific.
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