California is a big state– our third-largest in land area– and it’s a beautiful state. Some of its most famous outdoor destinations– Yosemite National Park, Redwood National Park, and the Big Sur Coast are some examples– can get so crowded that the fun factor drops a bit.
Let’s look at some outdoor attractions that aren’t exactly secret or difficult to get to but which have far less traffic and commotion.
Death Valley National Park
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A handful of places here do get very busy quite a lot. However, this national park is about the size of Connecticut, so it is very easy to get away from the crowds, especially when there are hundreds of miles of unpaved roads to explore.
Mojave National Preserve
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A wilderness of rugged peaks, Joshua trees, and sand dunes, the Mojave is a large swath of protected land not far from a major interstate. If it were a national park, it would probably be so much busier, but since it isn’t, it isn’t. Solitude beckons.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
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All of California’s national parks are popular, but Lassen Volcanic is pretty out of the way compared to the others. The highlight is Mount Lassen, a Cascade volcano that last erupted in 1921. The park also features a geothermal area of hot springs and pools called Bumpass Hell.
Trinity Alps
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The Sierra Nevada and Mount Shasta get most of the attention in California as far as mountains go. That’s just fine with people who know about the Trinity Alps, a mountain wilderness in the northern part of the state. There, you can enjoy classic mountain scenery without all the crowded trails of the Sierra Nevada parks.
Hetch Hetchy Valley
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Hetch Hetchy Valley in northwestern Yosemite National Park was once much like world-famous Yosemite Valley. Controversially, the state constructed a dam that turned the valley into a reservoir supplying water to the San Francisco area. It’s still a beautiful area, though, and it receives vastly less visitation than Yosemite Valley does.
John Muir Wilderness
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This is a large federally designated wilderness that largely spans the Sierra Nevada crest east of Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks. The trails here can get pretty busy, but they’re still less crowded than the national parks are, and some of the most beautiful and highest peaks of the range are here.
Ansel Adams Wilderness
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This is another Sierra Nevada wilderness, and it spans much of the range from the Mammoth Lakes area to Yosemite. Although it’s also popular, it’s a little harder to access than the John Muir wilderness is, and it’s thus a little less busy. Some of its most-loved features include the jagged Minarets and picture-perfect Thousand Island Lake framing the spectacular Banner Peak.
Pinnacles National Park
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Long a national monument, this area got an upgrade in recent years. The rugged namesakes have many miles of trails winding through them, and it’s also a popular destination for rock climbers.
Giant Sequoia National Monument
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The well-known giant sequoia groves of Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia National Parks are almost always crowded. South of the parks is this recently established monument protecting and preserving even more of the world’s largest trees, and it’s way less-crowded than the groves in the parks are.
Mendocino Coast
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Every inch of the California coast is spectacular, and none of it is unknown or little-visited. It’s busiest from San Francisco to San Diego, though. If you want to get away from the worst of the crowds, try Mendocino County in the northern part of the state.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
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This huge state park is larger than some national parks. About the only section that ever gets crowded is the area around Borrego Springs, where the park’s headquarters are. Otherwise, there are miles and miles of unpaved roads and open desert to explore, and often, you’ll see few or no other people.
White Mountains
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East of the Sierra Nevada, one of the state’s highest mountain ranges straddles the Nevada state line and soars above the surrounding desert. In the White Mountains, you’ll find groves of bristlecone pines, the world’s oldest and longest-living organisms, and one of them has the very oldest in it (it’s about 6500 years old). You can also hike a trail up White Mountain Peak. It’s a strenuous trail, but it’s the easiest to ascend of California’s 14ers, peaks above 14,000’ in altitude.
The 30 Most Beautiful Places in the World That Everyone Must See
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There’s no way you could ever come up with a definitive list of the world’s most beautiful places. However, if you ask around, some places come up a lot more frequently than others do.
The following are some of the places that people mention over and over again, not in any particular order.
30 Breathtaking Places You Must See Before You Die
The Two Best Scenic Wonders in Each of the Mountain States
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The Mountain States– Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico– have some of the wildest and most rugged landscapes in the United States. Because they’re so big, it can take a lot of time to visit them, so it helps to be able to plan for some specific destinations.
Following are our choices for the top two must-see outdoor locations in each of these seven states.
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