California: Complete Guide with Coastal Drives, National Parks and the Wine Country (Gold Guides)

This partial excerpt, from the Pleasures and Pastimes section, gives you a taste of what California has to offer and the sights and scenes that make it a great place to visit.


Beaches

With 1,264 miles of coastline, California is well supplied with beaches. You can walk, lie, and sun on them, watch seabirds and hunt for shells, dig clams, or spot seals and sea otters at play. From December through March you can witness the migrations of the gray whales. What you can't always do at these beaches is swim. From San Francisco northward the water is too cold for all but the hardiest souls. Even along the southern half of the coast some beaches are too dangerous for swimming because of the undertow. Look for signs and postings and take them seriously.


Access to beaches in California is generally excellent. The state park system includes many fine beaches, and ocean-side communities maintain public beaches. Through the work of the California Coastal Commission, many stretches of private property that would otherwise seal off a beach from outsiders have public-access paths.


Dining

California's name has come to signify a certain type of healthful, sophisticated cuisine made from local ingredients, creatively combined and served in often stunning presentations. San Francisco and Los Angeles contain top-notch restaurants -- an expensive meal at one of these gourmet shrines is often the high point of a trip to California. The Wine Country north of San Francisco is also known for superb restaurants, as is the city of Santa Barbara. In coastal areas, most menus usually include some seafood, fresh off the boat. Don't neglect the state's many ethnic eateries -- among them Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Scandinavian, Italian, French, Belgian, Vietnamese, English, Thai, and German.


Golf

Golf is a year-round sport in California. Pebble Beach and the Palm Springs desert resorts have the most famous links, but there are championship courses all over the state.


Hot-Air Ballooning

Large, colorful balloons drift across the valleys of the Wine Country, where the air drafts are particularly friendly to this pastime, as well as in San Diego, the Palm Springs area, and the Gold Country. Hot-air ballooning is not cheap, however: a ride costs in excess of $100.


Parks


National Parks

There are eight national parks in California: Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Lassen Volcanic, Redwood, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Yosemite, and the Channel Islands. National monuments include Cabrillo, in San Diego, and Muir Woods, north of San Francisco.


California has three national recreation areas: Golden Gate, with 87,000 acres both north and south of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; the Santa Monica Mountains, with 150,000 acres from Griffith Park in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County; and Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity, with 240,000 acres, including four major lakes, in the far north. The Point Reyes National Seashore is on a peninsula north of San Francisco.


State Parks

California's state park system includes more than 200 sites; many are recreational and scenic, others historic or scientific. Among the most popular are Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, reached by ferry from San Francisco or Tiburon; Anza-Borrego Desert, 600,000 acres northeast of San Diego; Humboldt Redwoods, with its tall trees; Empire Mine, one of the richest mines in the Mother Lode, in Grass Valley; Hearst Castle at San Simeon; and Leo Carrillo Beach, north of Malibu, with lively tidal pools and numerous secret coves. Most state parks are open year-round.


Skiing

Snow skiing in the Lake Tahoe area and elsewhere is generally limited to the period between Thanksgiving and late April, though in years of heavy snowfall skiers can hit some trails as late as July. Other ski options include Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park in the Far North; Mammoth Lake and the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California; and Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park.


Water Sports

Swimming and surfing, scuba diving, and skin diving in the Pacific Ocean are year-round pleasures in the southern part of the state, although these become seasonal sports on the coast from San Francisco northward. Sailboats are available for rent in many places along the coast and inland. River rafting -- white-water and otherwise -- canoeing, and kayaking are popular, especially in the northern part of the state.


Wine Tasting

You can visit wineries in many parts of the state, not only in the Wine Country of the Sonoma and Napa valleys. Vintners associations in the Gold Country, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz, and other wine-growing areas provide brochures with lists of wineries that have tastings. Wineries and good wine stores will package your purchases for safe travel or shipping.