![]() Today, many visit the 740-acre island just to hike or ride bikes it’s a verdant spot just off the coast of Tiburon in Marin County.īut from 1910 to 1940, it had another identity entirely. It doesn’t get massive crowds but Angel Island State Park (served daily by the Golden Gate Ferry from San Francisco’s Ferry Building, Gate B, $14 each way) is a key landmark in Asian American history. ![]() Placerville, handy to the river, is the nearest town with a selection of restaurants along its Main Street. Some companies offer two-day, 20-mile trips with a night of camping.īonus tip: Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park, where the Gold Rush began, is less than a mile from many of Coloma’s river outfitters along California 49. Half-day and all-day rafting trips typically cost $120-$190 per person. Once you are more experienced, there’s whiter water - Class IV - waiting along the middle and north forks of the American. (Since there’s a dam upstream, water releases are steady and predictable.) Rookies should sign on with a licensed, experienced company there are more than a dozen, many based in the Coloma-Lotus area.įamily-friendly river floats typically begin north of Placerville, below the Chili Bar Reservoir. Guides say the south fork of the American River is a perfect introduction to river rafting, thanks to its evocative scenery and relatively mild Class II and III rapids. Running a river is a signature thrill in California’s Gold Country - and if it’s early summer you can expect a few splashes of cold water on your face. If you’ve never done it (I never got around to it until 2017), this might be the time. But now, with tourism to San Francisco still down dramatically, booking an Alcatraz visit is easy. ![]() Night tours are slightly pricier.īonus tip: For decades Alcatraz has been a tough ticket, with tours selling out weeks in advance. Tour prices start at $41 for adults, $25 for children (ages 5-11). A current exhibition, “The Big Lockup,” examines the culture of incarceration in the U.S., where some 2.3 million Americans are behind bars. The National Park Service opened the site, including the cellhouse, to the public in 1973. When you reach the island aboard the 15-minute Alcatraz Cruises ferry from San Francisco’s Pier 33, one of the first things you see is graffiti from 1969-71, when Native American protesters occupied the island. But it has important civil rights history too. If these pages help push you to see anyplace or meet anyone new in the vast backyard we share, that’s a win.įrom 1934 to 1963, Alcatraz was our nation’s most dramatically sited penitentiary, home to gangsters from Al Capone to Whitey Bulger. And let us know what would have been on your list, and maybe we’ll get there in the months ahead. Use our checklist ( black and white version here) to check off the things you’ve done, the destinations you’ve explored. So take this list, listen to the experts as the pandemic ebbs and flows, and go when you can. On this list, which is numbered but not ranked, there are no theme parks (but plenty of kid-friendly destinations), not many museums (because the best are easy to find), no made-for-Instagram “pop-up experiences.” It’s a peek into my travel notebook through the Golden State, a place that’s easily glimpsed and poorly understood. The wordless grace of Bob Baker’s marionettes. The eerie shapes in San Luis Obispo’s Poly Canyon. A hike through Sequoia National Park’s biggest trees, now flanked by last year’s ashes and this spring’s flowers. That’s why I’m offering up my guide to the 101 best California experiences, made of the most resonant spots I’ve found across the state - including many I’ve come across in the last few months. We’re looking for new places and new ways of seeing old places. Right now, many of us are itching to explore. It’s where the gold is, beyond the selfie spots, the mouse ears, the Golden Gate Bridge and the postcard vista from the Tunnel View parking lot in Yosemite. But to me, after decades spent up and down California reporting on travel, the arts and the outdoors, the unseen 87% represents immense possibilities. OK, maybe it’s not so great if you’re the Titanic. There’s the tip, and then there’s the best part: the 87% that’s hidden below the waterline. Hey, California people: Imagine an iceberg.
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