Publicized and idealized all over the world, CALIFORNIA
really does live up to the myth. More than just a terrestrial
paradise of sun, sand and surf, it has high mountain ranges,
fast-paced glitzy cities, primeval old-growth forests and vast
stretches of deserts. The landscape is imbued with history, ranging
from rock carvings left by indigenous Native Americans to the eerie
ghost towns of the Gold Rush pioneers.
In some ways, the west coast is the ultimate "now" society.
Anywhere so vulnerable to the constant threat of the Big One - a
massive earthquake of unimaginable terror - is bound to have
a sense of living for the moment. However, its supposed
superficiality is largely fictitious. Although home to such
reactionary figures as Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon, it has also
been the source of some of the country's most progressive
political movements . The fierce protests of the Sixties may
have died down, but California remains the heart of liberal
America, at the forefront of environmental awareness, gay pride and
social permissiveness, and increasingly a bulwark of the Democratic
Party. Economically , too, the region is crucial, whether in
the film industry, the music business, the financial markets, or
the all-consuming sector of real-estate development.
California is too large to be fully explored in a single trip,
but in an area so varied it's hard to pick out specific highlights.
Los Angeles is far and away the biggest and most stimulating
city: a maddening collection of freeways, beaches, seedy suburbs,
upscale neighborhoods and extreme lifestyles. From Los Angeles you
can head south to the growing metropolis of San Diego , with
its broad, welcoming beaches and easy access to Mexico; or push
inland to the desert areas , most notably Death
Valley , a barren and inhospitable landscape of volcanic
craters and salt pans that in summer becomes the hottest place on
earth.
Most people, though, follow the shoreline north up the
central coast : a gorgeous run that takes in lively small
towns like Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz .
California's second city, San Francisco , at the top end, is
about as different from LA as it's possible to get: the oldest,
most European-styled city in the state, set on a series of steep
hills, its wooden houses tumbling down to water on three sides. It
is also well placed for the national parks to the east, such as
Yosemite , where waterfalls cascade into a sheer glacial
valley, and Sequoia/Kings Canyon with its gigantic trees, as
well as the ghost towns of the Gold Country. North of San
Francisco the countryside becomes wilder, wetter and greener,
approaching Oregon through spectacular and almost deserted volcanic
tablelands.
The climate in southern California consists of
seemingly endless days of sunshine and warm dry nights, with
occasional bouts of torrential flooding in the winter. LA's
notorious smog is at its worst when the temperatures are highest,
from July through September. All along the coast mornings
can be hazily overcast, especially in May and June; in exposed San
Francisco it can be chilly all year, and fog rolls in to ruin many
a sunny day. Much more so than in the south, winter in northern
California can bring rain for weeks on end, causing massive
mudslides that wipe out roads and hillside homes. Most hiking
trails in the mountains are blocked between October and June
by the snow that keeps California's ski slopes among the busiest in
the nation.