The Los Angeles Times picks 15 places you must see to appreciate California.
Today, with full expectation of howling dissent and snorts of derision, we present the Travel section’s first California Golden 15. We, your neighbors, do so as the holiday travel season approaches and as distant strangers peddle their compendiums of places you should visit before you die. These are 15 places we think you must visit to grasp the wonder of this state.
This is not California for beginners — not Disneyland, not Hearst Castle, not the San Diego Zoo, not even Sutter’s Mill. (Those and 11 other basic must-see destinations get their own sidebar; see below.) This is the California that speaks to the seasoned native and the thoughtful newcomer, the California that waits beyond the well-explored city limits of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco.
Before you click to learn the 15 places to visit to see the real California, see if you can guess them. Alas, I believe I have only been to three.
And here are the destinations they say are the 15-must-see spots for California beginners. It’s much easier to guess these. NewMexiKen has been to 11 of them. (I was a resident of the Golden State for about 12 years total.)
Of the basic list, I too have only done 11 of them. (I personally would have added a special mention of Laguna Beach, the Festival of the Arts, and the Pageant of the Masters. But that’s just me.) The ones I have missed are Sutter’s Mill, Yosemite, Tahoe, and Napa.
Of the Real List, I have seen/done 6: Petroglyph Canyon, Inn on Mt. Ada, rockhopping at Joshua Tree, the grunion run, 1000 Island Lake, and the General Grant.