Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, May 18.
If you’re planning your summer road trips or looking for fun destinations closer to home, The Times’ 101 best California experienceshas arrived, hot off the digital presses.
This year’s list was crafted by Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds, who described the selection as “places that speak loudly and deeply to me about what California is, has been and can be.”
Christopher has been with The Times since 1990 and spent most of the last 30 years writing about travel, with many journeys around California.
“You never quite cover the whole state,” he told me this week. “Just when you think you’re beginning to understand it, it keeps on changing.”
The most challenging part putting together an admittedly “subjective” list is balancing the familiar places with those tucked away, Christopher said. Theme parks and some of the more obvious tourist traps are excluded, but there are a decent number of well-known staples sure to illicit some I’ve-been-theres.
Some shameful places in state history are also mapped — “painful, but it’s vital to face up to,” Christopher wrote. That includes Manzanar, where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.
The iconic cemetery monument at the Manzanar National Historic Site near Bishop, Calif., with Mt. Williamson in the background. (Don Leach / Daily Pilot)
What else stood out for Christopher this year? For one, “more chances to appreciate Native culture in California than there has been for many years.” He pointed to experiences offered by some of California’s Indigenous tribes — such as canoe trips on the Klamath River led by Yurok guides and ancient mineral baths belonging to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
Looking through the list, I tallied 35 I’ve visited or experienced to some degree.
According to Christopher, “that’s pretty good,” though as a lifelong Californian, I’m slightly embarrassed I don’t have more check marks. But in such a grand state, there are also plenty of places and experiences I’ve had that are not on the list (so don’t get too down on yourselves if you’re feeling light on adventure).
Christopher hopes readers will come away with some inspiration for future travel — and find their own surprises along the way, adding:
“It’s great fun to embark on a trip aiming for one destination and while you’re there, find out about two more. Traveling is always that way. There’s the thing that you know you’re going to see, and then there’s the stuff that you don’t expect that really makes it special.”
He also hopes readers will reach out and tell him what he missed to help make next year’s list even more surprising.
“It’s really an inexhaustible state that we live in,” he said.
Here are several more of Christopher’s picks that caught my eye (and might get checked off in the near future). You can explore the full list and map combo here.
Wind down the American River in El Dorado County
River guide Kyle Brazil on the American River near Coloma. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Marvel at the mucho murals of Chicano Park in San Diego
A variety of murals on display at Chicano Park in San Diego’s oldest Mexican American neighborhood. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Enjoy caboose cuisine in Half Moon Bay
Dad’s Luncheonette in Half Moon Bay. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Meet metal monsters in Borrego Springs
The Borrego Springs Serpent Sculpture at Galleta Meadows. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Ditch the mainland for Santa Cruz Island
Santa Cruz Island, Channel Islands National Park. (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
I also spotted a few familiar places newsletter readers shouted out in our California landmark feature. Which reminds me: What other Golden State locales do you view as essentially Californian?
We’ve been featuring your landmark love with photos and your words on what makes them special for months now, but our stock is running a bit low these days. So help us out, folks!
Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made. Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State. Bonus points for those less-traveled, wonderfully weird spots.
Please be sure to only include photos taken directly by you. Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter (like the one you’ll find at the bottom of today’s edition).
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