California National Parks

California has some of the biggest, best and most famous national parks in the United States, including Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree National Parks.

Think of California and you inevitably think first of surfing, beaches and Beverly Hills, of Hollywood and Disneyland, and of landmarks like San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. But drive over that bridge, or head a short way east from San Francisco or Los Angeles, and you’ll see what the state has really got to offer. Its National Parks will take you from the dense and sometimes dank forests of Giant Redwood and Sequoia trees to the desert landscape of Death Valley, the hottest and driest National Park in the United States.

Yosemite is not only a National Park but a World Heritage Site, and is over 750,000 acres of mostly untamed wilderness, of glaciers and mountains – its highest point is Mount Lyell which rises to 13,114 feet (3,998 m). Even bigger than Yosemite is the Joshua Tree National Park, big enough to encompass two separate deserts as well as the forests of Joshua Trees that give the park its name – and gave U2 an album title, though the famous album cover shot was taken in Death Valley.

If you add to these major National Parks a few smaller parks, California’s State Parks as well as its National Seashores, National Monuments, National Preserves and other features, then you realise just what an amazing state this is. California, here I come.

How to Make the Most of California’s National Parks
It goes without saying that California’s National Parks are far too vast and too varied for anyone to be able to pack them all into even a two-week visit. California is twice the size of Great Britain, and the largest National Park, Death Valley, is the size of Northern Ireland. You have to either be selective and focus on one or two parks, or if you want to visit several you have to accept the fact that you’ll only get a glimpse of what they’ve got to offer. Or perhaps just be prepared to come back.

Best Drive to Get There
The Redwood National and State Parks are way up there in northern California, not far from the Oregon border, but to get there from San Francisco means a delightful drive up the Pacific Coast Highway. It passes through the Point Reyes National Seashore (100 square miles of coastal wilderness) and the achingly-beautiful town of Mendocino, before reaching some of the oldest and most magnificent trees on planet earth. As well as the Redwood National Park there are also three State Parks to visit: the Del Norte Coast Redwoods, the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. That’s a lot of parks but they are much needed to protect the Giant Redwoods and other trees which once covered much of the California coast but are now preserved in these areas. No matter how much wildlife and wilderness you’ve seen, nothing prepares you for the sheer size and presence of these giants. Even the ferns here can grow to ten-feet high, so imagine what the trees are like. In a word, they are humbling.

Best for Wildlife
Although other parks may have bigger creatures, like black bear and elk, and more of them, the Channel Islands National Park off the California coast has many that you won’t see anywhere else in the world. There are 145 species unique to the five islands that make up the park, including the island fence lizard, the deer mouse, the spotted skunk and the Channel Islands fox. In addition, you should see whales especially if visiting in July and August. A visit takes planning, though, so book a boat trip from Ventura (70 miles north of LA by the coast road) in advance.

Best for Scenery
Yosemite isn’t the biggest of the California National Parks, but it probably has the greatest variety of scenery. For some, the desert landscapes of Death Valley and Joshua Tree may be too stark, but Yosemite has the drama of glaciers and mountains, waterfalls which include three of the world’s ten longest waterfalls, trees to rival the redwoods, rivers and canyons, and granite rocks like El Capitan, which presents a vertical face 3,000-feet high. And all this is less than a 4-hour drive due east from San Francisco.

Best for Jaw-Dropping Wonder
If you had to choose one National Park to show why there’s more to the United States than theme parks and Big Macs, it would have to be Death Valley. The very name is enough to make you nervous, and it came from the 1849 gold prospectors who had to face its fierce heat, many of them dying as they sought the mother lode. Other places in Death Valley convey its reputation, like Coffin Peak, Dante’s View, Badwater and Furnace Creek. It’s the largest National Park in the USA outside of Alaska, and as such it demands both respect and planning.  To do it the easy way and to see some of its most impressive features, drive the 81-mile Death Valley Scenic Byway. You can hike and bike too, but stick to the established trails, check the weather, and take plenty of food and especially water with you.

Best for All-Round Activities
At almost 800,000 acres, Joshua Tree has plenty of space for all kinds of activities for those who prefer more than merely sitting in the car – though you can enjoy plenty of drives there too, if you wish. You can also do easy or challenging hikes, take a guided nature hike, go mountain biking, horse-riding, rock climbing, or take a jeep adventure tour into the wilds of the desert. There are two different deserts within the National Park, the Mojave Desert and the Colorado Desert. It’s in the Mojave Desert that you’ll find the emblematic Joshua Trees, while the Colorado Desert is home to palm trees and several desert oases, which make great spots for birdwatching.

These are just the main National Parks, and while they attract millions of visitors most people stick to tiny areas within the parks, leaving the rest for more adventurous travellers. There are other places too, like the Sequoia National Park, where you’ll find the General Sherman Tree, the biggest tree on earth, and the Lassen Volcanic National Park, where you can find all four different types of volcano. And if you didn’t know there were four different types of volcano, it’s about time you paid the California National Parks a visit.