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 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.
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