Central California stories & travel reviews

Central California stories & travel reviews

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Old-time California in Cambria

A classic coastal town on the PCH.

Unexpected. That’s the word that comes to mind when I think about my recent trip to Cambria, California. Cambria, located roughly a half hour north of San Louis Obispo, reminded me of the Midwest somehow. ...

Serenity in the Channel Islands

Visiting Channel Islands National Park is like entering a time machine and being transported back a few hundred years to a wild and natural, pre-automobile, pre-industrial California. Located off the coast of Ventura, the Channel ...

Death Valley – Why?

Transcendence found in the California desert.

Deep in the belly of Death Valley National Park, I pitched my tent up against sage bushes looking out at snowcapped mountains. Campers sat in their vehicles, some huddled in their tents, all dodging the ...

Old World Solvang, CA

A continent away, just 4 hours north of San Diego.

Usually it's places with some sort of dark, twisted history that attract me. If a place doesn't have that, it's pretty rare that I'll visit, much less make it a regular stomping ground. So, considering ...

Taste Carmel Valley, CA

Wines, olive oil, fresh produce and herbs near the PCH.

Enjoy a few leisurely hours driving east along picturesque Carmel Valley Road, just off Highway 1 near Carmel, California, where you can stop, taste and shop for veggies and herbs on an organic farm and ...

Travel with Your Dog in CA

With an estimated nine-million-plus dogs in California alone, it’s no wonder there are so many dogs at parks, beaches and recreation areas throughout the state. The mile-long Huntington Dog Beach, the epitome of a perfect ...

S.D. to S.F. – by Bike

A not-so-relaxing honeymoon

Held every October, the Million Dollar Challenge is a fundraising bike ride for challenged athletes in which participants cycle down the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego. The reverse route, however, can be ...

California's Active Volcanoes

A tour from the Mojave to Mono Lake

There are more than 550 active volcanoes in the world, five of which are in California. It's to be expected from a state sitting on the eastern edge of the Ring of Fire. Between Barstow ...

At the World’s End: Ballarat Ghost Town, Death Valley

Death Valley must be seen to be believed. From the turquoise flats rolling out beneath lofty Dante’s View to the salty vertigo of Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America, it is a place ...

King's River Rafting: Not Your Average Family Vacation

Originating high in the mountains of central California near Sequoia National Park, the Kings River boasts the largest watershed of any river in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Last year I took the family on ...

Three Days in Santa Cruz

A hidden gem along the Californian coast, Santa Cruz offers lush natural parks, eateries with local charm and the traditional boardwalk. It has a relaxed feel like most beach towns, and the locals prize natural ...

A Long Weekend in Sequoia and Yosemite

On a whim, I decided to drive up to explore a spectacular stretch of California natural beauty for a four-day vacation: Sequoia National Park and Yosemite. I hadn’t been to Yosemite for years, and I ...

Finding It in Shoshone, California

For the record: I’m not a fancy, gotta-have-posh type of woman; I’m OK with “rough around the edges.” I’m instinctively drawn to character, whether quaint and endearing or quirky and eclectic. I like spice, color ...

Nothing Like the PCH

Undeniably one of the most picturesque roads you’ll ever traverse, California’s Route 1 north of Santa Barbara is a largely contiguous strip of undeveloped coastline with endless, arresting views. (“Undeveloped,” as in not much there ...

Trona Pinnacles, Mojave Desert, California

The Trona Pinnacles (not to be confused with Pinnacles National Monument near Steinbeck’s Soledad) is one of those natural geological wonders that awes. Set back five miles off SR 178, twenty miles east of Ridgecrest, ...

Hiking the Lower 48's Highest: Mt. Whitney, California

On a lonely stretch of Highway 395 in Central Cali, the Sierras rise from the earth and reach for the heavens. It is here, and more specifically Mt. Whitney, where the modern-day hiker goes for ...