STATE & NATIONAL PARKS

Awesome by Nature

Scramble up boulders in Joshua Tree’s Wonderland of Rocks. Time travel on a historic ship in San Francisco Bay. Stand beneath giant redwoods that author John Steinbeck called ambassadors from another time. Whatever your passion, California’s 280 state parks and 32 national parks, seashores and monuments—whose mission is to protect the state’s natural and cultural treasures—are the gateway to experiences as varied as the state’s geography.

Yosemite & the Sierra Nevada

Yosemite National Park, with its glaciersculpted valley and granite peaks, is justifiably one of the world’s natural treasures. Come in spring when the waterfalls thunder to the valley floor. Come in summer when the park is abuzz with visitors to explore by tram, bike or on foot. Choose a gentle half-hour hike or reserve a spot for the all-day climb up Half Dome. Junior Ranger Walks are popular with kids. Backpackers can enjoy the solitude of the park’s high country and expert rock climbers have dozens of granite walls to scale. Don’t leave the park without stopping at Glacier Point with its views of Half Dome and Yosemite Valley or at the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias to marvel at its 2,700-year-old Grizzly Giant.

To see a really big tree—the world’s largest by volume—head south to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and

marvel at the weighty General Sherman. While still in the mountains, take a trip to Lake Tahoe, North America’s largest alpine lake. Along the lake’s west shore, D.L. Bliss, Emerald Bay and Sugar Pine Point state parks offer camping, hiking and white sand beaches. Farther north at Lassen Volcanic National Park, watch California take shape in the roaring fumaroles, thumping mud pots and boiling pools.

Giants in the Mist

While the Sierras are home to the heftiest redwoods, the state’s fog-shrouded coastal range from Oregon to Big Sur boasts the loftiest—several are taller than the Statue of Liberty. These rare trees, once logged to near extinction, are now protected within California’s redwood parks.

At Humboldt Redwoods State Park, home to the largest continuous old growth redwood forest on earth, drive the 31-mile Avenue of the Giants and make stops along the way to stroll among the titans. Founders Grove with its majestic 346-foot specimen is always a favorite. Visit in spring to see the pink redwood lilies and purple calypso orchids in bloom.

Farther north and closer to the coast, the Redwood National and State Parks is a collection of four parks with miles of unspoiled coast and hiking trails. The

MANZANITA LAKE AND LASSEN PEAK in Lassen Volcanic National Park, opposite; Garrapata State Park at the gateway to Big Sur, left; climbing the Mist Trail to Vernal Fall in Yosemite National Park, below.