California Travel Guides

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About California

The western state of California is the most populous state with the largest economy in the U.S. Its capital city is Sacramento and most populated is Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 1850, California became the 31^st state in the United States. California is the third largest state after Alaska and Texas. It is one of the most geographically diverse states in the U.S. After living in California for 5 years, I developed my own California Travel Guides below.

The state is often divided into the Southern Los Angeles area and Northern San Francisco Bay Area. In the middle of the state is the California Central Valley. Most of California is a Mediterranean Climate. The California Current cools the atmosphere off shore, creating fog near the coast. The inland experiences more extreme weather with colder winters and hotter summers. The Los Angeles area, including Hollywood, is globally a major entertainment center. The U.S. film industry’s “Big Five” film studios are based here: Columbia, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros.

There are nine National Parks in California and many also are part of the national forests, National Monuments, National Wildlife Refuges and Native American Heritage Sites.

Death Valley is the hottest, lowest and driest of national parks in U.S. However, it’s a comfortable temperature during the winter months for seeing hauntingly beautiful landscapes. Joshua Tree is home to the only place on Earth with the Joshua Trees and is world renowned for its rock-climbing community. Yosemite National Park is in central California in the western Sierra Nevada and known for its awesome waterfalls and climbing rock formations, such as, El Capitan and Half Dome. Located on five of the eight Channel Islands, Channel Islands National Park is off the California coast in Santa Barbara County.

The Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park are geographically adjacent in the Sierra Nevada’s. Sequoia N.P. consists of giant sequoia trees, including the largest tree on Earth by volume, the General Sherman Tree. Furthermore, it’s in the Giant Forest, containing 5 of the 10 largest trees in the world. Redwood National and State Parks are a network of three state and one national park located along the coast of northern California. Coastal redwoods are among the oldest and tallest tree species on Earth. In northeastern California is Lassen Volcanic National Park. It contains numerous volcanoes including Lassen Peak, the largest plug dome volcano in the world and southernmost volcano in the Cascade Range. Pinnacles National Park is in the Salinas Valley in Central California. It’s named after eroded rocky spires, which remain from an ancient volcanic field.