Grover Hot Springs State Park is a small alpine park in the eastern Sierra Nevada near Markleeville, California, centered on natural geothermal springs that feed a warm soaking pool and an adjacent cool swimming pool for year‑round enjoyment.
Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park protects a rugged ridge-and-canyon landscape where Native American trade routes and the 19th-century Santa Susana stagecoach road crossed the Transverse Ranges, preserving archaeological sites, sandstone outcrops, and reminders of early transportation and ranching in the region.
Dos Rios State Park is California’s newest state park at the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers near Modesto, created by converting former ranchland into roughly 1,600 acres of restored riparian floodplain with dense plantings of cottonwood, willows, valley oaks and other native species.
Point Reyes National Seashore in California is a vast 71,000-acre protected park on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, featuring rugged coastline, sandy beaches, estuaries, grasslands, and forested ridges.
Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park spans 349 acres along a scenic four-mile stretch of the Sacramento River and Big Chico Creek on the Butte-Glenn County line near Chico, California, preserving rare riparian woodland habitat with massive valley oaks, cottonwoods, willows, and understories of elderberry, wild grape, and blackberry that shelter diverse birds, fish, and wildlife.
Estero Bluffs State Park is an undeveloped coastal preserve north of Cayucos that protects about 300–353 acres and roughly four miles of dramatic shoreline made up of low bluffs, sea stacks, intertidal zones, pocket coves (notably Villa Creek), coastal terraces, and wetlands that support sensitive species like the western snowy plover and several marsh and estuarine habitats.
Standish-Hickey State Recreation Area serves as the southern gateway to California's renowned North Coast redwood belt, covering over 1,000 acres along Highway 101 near Leggett in Mendocino County.
Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park in Weaverville, California, preserves the Temple of the Forest Beneath the Clouds, California's oldest continuously used Chinese temple built in 1874 by Taoist miners during the Gold Rush.
Thornton State Beach, a 58-acre park established in 1955 in Daly City just south of San Francisco along the Pacific coast, features a remote sandy beach backed by tall eroding bluffs, with a Mediterranean climate of frequent wind, cold temperatures, and summer fog.
Andrew Molera State Park encompasses nearly 5,000 acres of wild Big Sur coastline in Monterey County, California, about 20 miles south of Carmel along Highway 1, where the Big Sur River meets the Pacific amid diverse terrains of grassy meadows, oak woodlands, redwood groves, chaparral ridges, and ocean bluffs overlooking Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier, opened in 1996, is the West Coast's only amusement park located on a pier. It features twelve rides, including the world’s first solar-powered Ferris wheel called the Pacific Wheel, which offers stunning views of the Pacific Ocean.
John Little State Natural Reserve is a small, protected 21‑acre coastal parcel on the Big Sur coast that preserves steep, rugged cliffs, a short canyon where Lime Creek meets the ocean, and a 1917 conservationist’s cabin once owned by Elizabeth K. Livermore.
Colusa Casino Resort is a Native American gaming and entertainment destination owned by the Cachil Dehe Band of Wintun Indians of the Colusa Indian Community, located at 3770 Highway 45 in Colusa, California, about an hour north of Sacramento in the Capay Valley.
The San Diego Zoo, located in Balboa Park, California, is one of the world's largest and most famous zoos, home to over 12,000 animals representing more than 680 species and subspecies on a 100-acre site.
Salinas River State Beach sits at the mouth of the Salinas River on Monterey Bay near Moss Landing and features a long, wide sandy shore backed by coastal dunes and wetlands that are important habitat for shorebirds and other wildlife.
Benicia Capitol State Historic Park in Benicia, California, preserves the state's third capitol building—a Greek Revival structure completed in 1852 where the California Legislature convened from February 1853 to February 1854 before relocating to Sacramento—as California's only surviving pre-Sacramento capitol and a National Historic Landmark.
