California for Visitors: Beaches, Sierra Peaks, Desert Heat and a Gold Rush Past

California holds the lowest point in North America and, less than 200 miles away, the tallest mountain in the lower 48 states: Death Valley at 282 feet (82 m) below sea level and Mount Whitney at 14,505 feet (4,421 m). Wikivoyage's guide describes a state of more than 160,000 square miles (411,000 km²) that ranges from warm beaches to snowy mountains, fertile farmland and extreme desert. It is also the most populous U.S. state, with over 38 million residents.

San Francisco, partly enshrouded in fog. Photo: Brocken Inaglory, CC BY-SA 3.0.

The lay of the land

The coast is rugged, and its mountains hold redwoods in their northern half. Inland the Central Valley, the farmland that supplies produce to the whole country, runs north to south before the Sierra Nevada rises, with Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon. The southeast is desert, about 25 percent of the state. The Mojave is a high desert, 3,000 to 6,000 feet above sea level, with under six inches (152 mm) of rain a year.

Climate swings with it. The coast is subtropical, mountain winters can fall below 0°F (-20°C), and Death Valley recorded 134°F (56.6°C) in 1913, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. Most rain falls in winter and the state has frequent droughts. On the coast, mornings are cool and foggy for much of the year, and the Pacific stays cold even in July: the guide rates September and October best for swimming.

Cities and parks

Beyond the cities the guide names Big Sur's coastline between Carmel and San Simeon, Death Valley, Joshua Tree, Lake Tahoe, Napa Valley wine country, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, where the General Sherman Tree is the largest tree on Earth, and Yosemite with Half Dome and El Capitan. California also has the largest state park system in the country.

Sequoia National Park. Photo: Tuxyso, CC BY-SA 3.0.

How it got here

People have lived in California for about 50,000 years, and it was home to 30 tribal groups before European explorers arrived in the 1500s, while more than 120 tribes remain. Spain built twenty-one missions by the late 1700s, from San Diego to Sonoma, and many still stand. After Mexican independence in 1821, California belonged to Mexico for 25 years until 1846, when residents declared the California Republic and the U.S. annexed it. Gold found in the Sierra Nevada in 1848 set off the Gold Rush, which lifted the non-native population from 15,000 to over 300,000 within two years, and California became a state in 1850. Los Angeles hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and since the late 20th century the Bay Area has led the digital revolution from Silicon Valley.

Mission Santa Clara. Photo: JaGa, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Getting around

The state is the third largest by area and compares in size with Sweden. A car is generally the best way to get around, though north to south can take well over ten hours, and the coastal routes, State Route 1 and U.S. 101, are much slower and windier than Interstate 5. The guide advises that fuel is costlier than elsewhere in the U.S., that San Francisco and Los Angeles are the congested places where road rage and potholes are common, and that the California Highway Patrol's online incident page shows how serious a highway problem is.

Food and drink

California has no single cuisine; its food scene reflects its immigrants and its farmland. Much of what you eat was harvested within 300 miles (480 km), and the state leads the world in tree nuts such as almonds, pistachios and walnuts. Local dishes include the Cobb salad, invented at the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles; cioppino, a seafood stew developed by Italian immigrants in San Francisco; the very large Mission burrito; and Santa Maria barbecue, a tri-tip roast cooked over an oak fire. The state also has the most American Viticultural Areas of any state, 154 as of March 2026, with Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino the premier wine districts north of San Francisco. Plain water is free in restaurants, but a disposable cup costs 25 cents by state law.

Hazards worth knowing

• Earthquakes large enough to do damage are rare. The advice is to drop, cover and hold on, to face away from windows and not to stand in a doorway, which the guide calls weaker than the rest of the building.
• Wildfires are common from May to October, and their smoke affects areas far larger than the fire; hilly burned ground is then prone to mudslides in the rainy season.
• Deserts call for at least one gallon (4 L) of water per person per day, a full tank of fuel and hiking early, before afternoon thunderstorms bring flash floods.
• The coast has rip currents, unstable cliffs and low rocks that a large wave can cover, so beaches with lifeguards are safer.
• Air quality is among the worst in the country in Los Angeles, the Central Valley and the Bay Area.
• Wildlife and plants: bears and mountain lions live in the mountains, and poison oak is almost everywhere.

Elephant seals fighting at San Simeon. Photo: Mike Baird, CC BY 2.0.

Prices, rules and conditions in the guide are as they stood at its last update, so check current information before you travel.

Sources

• Wikivoyage contributors, "California", https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/California, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changed here: rewritten and condensed in hubnx's own words; phone numbers, prices, opening hours and listings are left out; photographs are credited in their captions, each under its own licence. This version stays CC BY-SA 4.0.