Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SoCal's Deserts
Best hiked in spring and fall, Death Valley (
Click here
) and Joshua Tree
(
Click here
) National Parks, Mojave National Preserve (
Click here
) and Anza-Borrego
Desert State Park (
Click here
) lead you to palm-canyon oases and mining ghost towns, up
volcanic cinder cones and across sand dunes and salt flats.
San Francisco Bay Area
Marin Headlands (
Click here
), Muir Woods (
Click here
)
, Mt
Tamalpais (
Click here
)
and Point Reyes National Seashore (
Click here
)
, all within a
90-minute drive of San Francisco, are crisscrossed by dozens of superb hiking trails.
North Coast
Redwood National and State Parks (
Click here
)
and the Avenue of the Giants
offer misty walks through groves of old-growth redwoods, or you can scout out wilder
beaches along the challenging
Lost Coast Trail
.
Northern Mountains
Summiting Mt Shasta (
Click here
) is a spiritually uplifting experience,
while Lassen Volcanic National Park (
Click here
)
is a bizarre landscape of smoking fumar-
oles, cinder cones and craters.
Los Angeles
Ditch your car in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area,
where many movies and TV shows were filmed, or head out to the cooler climes of Big
Bear Lake (
Click here
).
Fees & Wilderness Permits
Most California state parks charge a daily parking fee of $4 to $15. There's often no charge
for pedestrians or cyclists. Don't be a jerk and park your car just outside the gate, then walk
in - California's state parks are chronically underfunded and need your support.
National park entry averages $15 to $20 per vehicle for seven consecutive days. Some na-
tional parks, including the Channel Islands and Redwood, are free admission.
For unlimited admission to national parks, national forests and other federal recreation
lands, buy an
'America the Beautiful' annual pass
.
They're sold at national park visitor cen-
ters and entry stations, as well as at most USFS ranger stations.
If you don't have an 'American the Beautiful' annual pass, you'll need a
National Forest Ad-
venture Pass
( 909-382-2623, 909-382-2622;
www.fs.fed.us/r5/sanbernardino/ap/
; per day $5, annual
pass $30)
to park in some recreational areas of SoCal's national forests. Buy passes from
USFS ranger stations and local vendors such as sporting-goods stores (see the website for
a complete list).
