Look at us. Our mountains are snowier, our hills greener, our waterfalls wetter, rivers fuller and blooms bolder than they’ve been in years.
In this drought-paused, pandemic-restriction-lifted, spring-awakening moment, California needs a good head-to-toe inspection. I know we have plenty of worries, but in four decades of traveling the state, I’ve never seen the landscape looking quite like this.
That’s why I’m here with this year’s 101 best California experiences, your guide to what’s great and what’s different across the state as summer draws near.
For instance, downtown San Diego has a sleek waterfront music venue (No. 85). Cheech Marin has made Riverside (No. 16) a vital destination for Chicano art. And if you can manage a spring road trip between ever-livelier downtown Paso Robles (No. 23) and Cambria’s cool Moonstone Beach (No. 63), you’ll be cruising through Highway 46 hillscapes (No. 40) so verdant your jaw may drop.
In this list, which is in alphabetical order, you won’t find pop-up selfie spots, the Hollywood Walk of Fame or any theme parks (though we have plenty of fresh Disneyland tips over here). Instead, these are all places that speak loudly and deeply to me about what California is, has been and can be. They’re also places that left me wanting more — another visit at a different hour, a little more backstory, a longer conversation with the people involved. Though the big list is in alphabetical order, you’ll see that I’ve earmarked a top 10 among the 101 — couldn’t resist.
Many are gorgeous. Some seem thuddingly obvious yet hold secrets you never suspected. Who knew that California’s biggest sequoia (No. 30) was named after Karl Marx by a doomed group of communist lumberjacks? Or that Cary Grant gave the Norton Simon Museum (No. 70) its best-loved Diego Rivera painting? Or that the Hollywood sign is a year younger than the Hollywood Bowl (No. 41)?
Of course, some of our history is painful, but it’s vital to face up to that too, whether it’s in the barracks at Manzanar (No. 57), under the Coronado Bridge (No. 17) or at the mission cemetery in Sonoma (No. 91).
You may also notice that inflation is at work here. The cost of an Integratron sound bath near Joshua Tree (No. 48) is up. So is the fee at my favorite drive-through tree (No. 15) and dozens of other places. Still, if they’re here, I think they’re worth it. And I’ve tried to add budget options when possible. A few destinations are subject to spring and summer detours in the wake of landslides and floods, including Nepenthe in Big Sur (No. 67) and Yosemite Valley (No. 101).
So here’s to this vast, odd, flawed, spectacular, mutable, seismically unsound piece of real estate that we call California. Like those shiny pebbles slowly becoming sand at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg (No. 32), this state is nearly infinite, forever in transition and ours to explore.
Use our checklist to tick off the things you’ve done and let us know what treasures I missed. In the months ahead, I’ll be following your suggestions.
Now, away we go.