VideoAmericanGuru
The master checklist. One hundred places across ten regions, from the granite icons everyone knows to waterfalls most Californians haven't heard of. Cards with links lead to our full guides; the rest are on the filming list. Print it, argue with it, and start checking boxes.
How to use this page: pick the region that matches your next free weekend, follow the links for the practical details, and remember the seasonal rule of thumb, deserts in winter, Sierra in summer, coast in fall, waterfalls in spring.
The National Parks
Yosemite Valley
Granite walls three thousand feet tall, waterfalls you hear before you see, and meadows that look art directed. Arrive before 8 a.m. and the valley is a different, calmer place. Spring for thundering falls, October for golden quiet.
Glacier Point
The road (open roughly late May to October) delivers you to a railing three thousand feet above the valley floor, with Half Dome close enough to read. Sunset here rearranges your standards for scenery.
Mariposa Grove
Five hundred giant sequoias at Yosemite's south end, including the 1,800 year old Grizzly Giant. The shuttle and the first mile of trail deliver most of the wonder without the full hike.
Giant Forest & General Sherman
The largest living tree on earth anchors the densest grove of giants anywhere. Skip the crowds by continuing onto the Congress Trail loop, two easy miles where the tour buses vanish.
Kings Canyon Scenic Byway
A dead end road worth every mile, descending into a glacial canyon deeper by some measures than the Grand Canyon. The Zumwalt Meadow loop at road's end feels like Yosemite before the crowds found it.
Hidden Valley, Joshua Tree
A one mile loop through a boulder ringed valley once used by cattle rustlers, now busy with rock climbers. It is the single best introduction to the park's surreal landscape. October through April only; summer is brutal.
Zabriskie Point
Golden badlands ignite at dawn while the valley floor holds its blue shadow. This five minute walk from the parking lot is the best sunrise in the California desert.
Badwater Basin
Walk onto polygon cracked salt flats 282 feet below sea level, the lowest ground in North America. Go early; the white surface doubles the sun by mid morning.
Bumpass Hell
A boardwalk descends into Lassen's largest hydrothermal basin, all turquoise pools and roaring steam vents. Three miles round trip in America's most underrated national park.
High Peaks, Pinnacles
Stairs blasted into volcanic spires, handrails bolted to cliffs, and real chances of a California condor at eye level. Fall through spring only, and mornings are best for the birds.
North Coast
Point Reyes Lighthouse
Three hundred stairs descend a headland that records some of the foggiest, windiest weather on the coast. In whale season, January through April, it is one of the best land based lookouts anywhere.
Tomales Point
A bluff top trail through the tule elk reserve with ocean on one side and Tomales Bay on the other. Elk sightings are near guaranteed; turn around whenever you like.
Bodega Head
A granite fist of coastline with a bluff loop, harbor seals below, and volunteer whale spotters on winter weekends. Pair it with chowder from Spud Point across the harbor.
Goat Rock & the seal colony
Sea stacks, moody sand, and a harbor seal colony lounging where the Russian River meets the Pacific. A walking beach, not a swimming one; sneaker waves are serious here.
Mendocino Headlands
Bluff trails wrap a village of water towers and Victorians that looks lifted from Maine. Walk two blocks from any bakery and you are above sea arches and blowholes.
Russian Gulch falls
A lush six mile round trip through fern canyon forest to a 36 foot waterfall, plus a collapsed sea cave called the Devil's Punchbowl near the trailhead.
Glass Beach, Fort Bragg
Decades of surf tumbled glass turned an old dump site into a glittering cove. Photograph everything, pocket nothing; the glass is the attraction and it is dwindling.
Avenue of the Giants
Thirty one miles of old highway tunneling through the tallest forest on earth. Drive it slowly with the windows down and stop for at least one grove walk among the giants.
The Lost Coast
Where the highway engineers gave up, leaving the wildest shoreline in California to backpackers and black sand. Even the drive in viewpoints at Shelter Cove feel earned.
Sonoma Coast coves
A string of pocket beaches between Bodega Bay and Jenner, each with sea stacks and its own personality. Portuguese and Schoolhouse beaches are the connoisseur stops.
Central Coast
McWay Falls
An eighty foot waterfall pours onto a cove beach you can never reach, which is exactly why it stays perfect. The overlook walk takes ten minutes; the image stays with you.
Bixby Creek Bridge
The 1932 arch that stars in every Big Sur montage. Photograph it before 9 a.m. or share the pullout with a car show.
Pfeiffer Beach
Purple tinged sand, a keyhole rock arch that lights up at winter sunset, and wind that means business. The unsigned access road is part of the initiation.
Point Lobos
Turquoise coves, sea otters in the kelp, and cypress groves on gentle bluff trails. Arrive at opening; it earns the crown jewel cliché by mid morning.
The Lone Cypress
A single Monterey cypress has held its granite point above Carmel Bay for around 250 years. The 17 Mile Drive viewpoint at golden hour is the picture everyone came for.
Carmel Beach
Improbably white sand backed by twisted cypress and a storybook village, with dogs running off leash the entire strand. Sunset here is a civic ritual.
Monterey's rec trail
A paved shoreline path where otters, harbor seals, and kelp forests provide the scenery from Fisherman's Wharf to Lovers Point. Rent a bike and the sightseeing does itself.
Elkhorn Slough
Calm estuary water with the densest sea otter population anywhere. Paddling at otter level is the best wildlife experience on Monterey Bay.
Moonstone Beach, Cambria
A mile of driftwood strewn beach with a bluff top boardwalk built for slow evening walks. The smart overnight between Big Sur and the south coast.
Piedras Blancas elephant seals
Thousands of enormous seals molt, spar, and bellow beside a free boardwalk north of San Simeon. Winter breeding season is peak drama, but someone is always home.
Sierra & Tahoe
Emerald Bay
Tahoe's glacier carved inlet holds its only island and its most famous view. Beat the parking scrum by arriving before 8 a.m., or come at golden hour when the tour buses drain away.
Eagle Lake
Two miles round trip from Emerald Bay's ridge to a granite bowl holding an alpine lake. The best scenery per step in the Tahoe basin.
Tahoe's East Shore
Boulder coves and water so clear the rocks glow turquoise thirty feet down. The paved East Shore Trail from Incline Village makes it an easy family outing.
Donner Summit
Pioneer history told properly at the state park museum, snowshoe trails through the pines, and the Rainbow Bridge overlook above Donner Lake. The thinking person's snow day.
Tenaya Lake & Tioga Road
Yosemite's summer only high road passes granite domes and a beach rimmed alpine lake that feels like a second, emptier national park.
South Tufa, Mono Lake
Limestone towers grown underwater now stand exposed on an ancient inland sea nearly three times saltier than the ocean. Sunrise and sunset turn them gold.
Conway Summit overlook
The Highway 395 pullout that lays the entire Mono Basin below you, lake, islands, and Sierra crest in one frame. The best free overlook on the corridor.
June Lake Loop
A horseshoe of lakes and aspen groves off Highway 395 that becomes California's best fall color drive every October, no contest.
Devils Postpile & Rainbow Falls
A wall of hexagonal basalt columns so regular they look quarried, then an easy two miles to a 101 foot waterfall that throws rainbows at midday.
Convict Lake
A three mile shoreline loop beneath one of the most dramatic peak walls in the Sierra. Arguably the best easy hike on the whole 395 corridor.
Bay Area
Golden Gate Bridge & Crissy Field
Walk the span itself, then come down to Crissy Field for the beach level view and the city's happiest off leash dog scene. September and October bring the clear skies.
Lands End & Sutro Baths
Cypress groves, shipwreck tides, and Golden Gate views on the city's wildest trail, ending at the romantic ruins of a Gilded Age swimming palace.
A cable car ride
The world's last manually operated cable railway, best ridden standing on the running board. Before 9:30 a.m. the famous queue is minutes, not hours.
Alcatraz
The audio tour is one of the best anywhere, narrated by former guards and inmates. Book weeks ahead in summer; the night tour is the sleeper pick.
Mount Tamalpais
The Bay's home mountain, drivable nearly to the top, with a short summit loop and a view that counts counties. Fog pouring over the ridges at sunset is the local religion.
Muir Woods
Cathedral old growth forty minutes from the Golden Gate. Parking and shuttle reservations are mandatory; book before you leave or be turned away.
Henry Cowell Redwoods
Old growth giants on a flat, easy loop minutes from Santa Cruz, with dog legal trails nearby, a rarity among redwood parks. The relaxed alternative to Muir Woods.
Mission Peak
The East Bay's summit pole photo costs six to eight miles and real climbing. Start from the Ohlone College side at dawn and skip the conga line.
Pigeon Point & Pescadero
One of the tallest lighthouses on the coast, tidepools below, and artichoke bread worth the drive in the tiny town up the road.
Angel Island
Ride the ferry, climb Mount Livermore, and get the only view that holds the entire Bay at once. The immigration station museum adds the history most visitors miss.
The Far North
Mount Shasta's Bunny Flat
Trailheads at 7,000 feet on the great solitary volcano, with alpine meadows, ancient whitebark pines, and sunsets that empty the mind. Respect Panther Meadows; it is sacred ground.
McCloud Falls
Three falls in two easy riverside miles, with the fifty foot middle fall pouring into a swimmable blue green pool. The best waterfall per effort deal in the state.
Heart Lake
A thirty minute climb above Castle Lake to a small tarn that holds Mount Shasta's reflection. You have seen this photo; now take your own.
Castle Crags
Ancient granite spires rise over the upper Sacramento River canyon. The Crags Trail to Castle Dome is the area's best hard hike; the highway vista point serves the view for free.
Burney Falls
One hundred twenty nine feet of springwater pouring through a mossy cliff face, running strong even in late summer when other falls quit. Roosevelt reportedly called it the eighth wonder of the world.
Hedge Creek Falls, Dunsmuir
A ten minute walk to a waterfall you can stand behind, right off the interstate in a historic rail town. The definition of a worthy detour.
Manzanita Lake
Lassen Peak mirrored in still water at the park's north entrance, with a flat 1.8 mile loop for the classic shot at golden hour.
Lava Beds caves
Hundreds of lava tubes you explore yourself by headlamp, from walk through galleries to crawls. The loneliest, strangest national monument in California.
Trinity Alps
Granite peaks and alpine lakes between Shasta and the coast, with Sierra caliber scenery and none of the permit lotteries. The Canyon Creek Lakes trail is the classic.
Whiskeytown Falls
A 220 foot cascade that stayed off the maps until 2004, reached by a moderate 3.4 mile round trip near Redding. Proof the state still keeps secrets.
Deserts
Cholla Cactus Garden
A field of teddy bear cholla that glows unreal gold at sunrise and sunset. Stay on the path; the cactus earns its cuddly name ironically.
Keys View
A drive up overlook with the Coachella Valley, Salton Sea, and San Andreas Fault laid at your feet. Best at sunset with a jacket; the desert cools fast.
Mesquite Flat Dunes
The classic ripple and shadow dune photography of Death Valley, best at dawn before footprints and heat arrive.
Artist's Palette
A one way drive through hills splashed pink, green, and purple by volcanic minerals. Late afternoon light turns the colors up.
Alabama Hills & Mobius Arch
Boulder arches framing Mount Whitney, free camping, and the backdrop of hundreds of westerns. Mobius Arch at dawn is the shot.
Trona Pinnacles
Five hundred tufa spires rising from a dry lakebed, film set for more than a few other planets. High clearance helps on the dirt road in.
Kelso Dunes
Six hundred fifty foot dunes in the Mojave Preserve that hum audibly when sand slides down their faces. Climb one at sunset and trigger it yourself.
Anza Borrego's Fonts Point
The overlook they call California's Grand Canyon, above a maze of eroded badlands. In wet years the surrounding desert erupts in wildflower super blooms.
Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
Desert floor to alpine forest in ten rotating minutes, rising nearly 6,000 feet up Chino Canyon. Snow on top while the valley wears 80 degrees.
Red Rock Canyon (NV)
A three thousand foot sandstone wall twenty minutes from the Strip, with a scenic loop and the hidden water pocket of Calico Tanks. Our one honorary out of state canyon.
SoCal Coast
Torrey Pines
Sandstone badlands, the rarest pine in North America, and trails that all end at the Pacific. Loop down to the beach and walk back below the cliffs at low tide.
La Jolla Cove
The clearest, calmest water on the coast, shared by snorkelers, garibaldi, and an argumentative sea lion colony. The one place in California you swim without courage.
Sunset Cliffs
Golden sandstone bluffs where San Diego gathers nightly for the show. Arrive 45 minutes early, walk south along the top, and stay through the afterglow.
Coronado Beach
Wide silver sand in front of the Hotel del Coronado's red turrets, consistently rated among America's best beaches. The dog beach at the north end is a legend of its own.
Cabrillo tidepools
Some of California's best minus tide exploring at the base of Point Loma, below the old lighthouse and the city's finest harbor panorama.
Point Dume, Malibu
A bluff top preserve over a perfect cove, with gray whales passing below in winter and a pocket beach reached by stairs.
El Matador Beach
Sea stacks, arches, and golden cliffs make this small Malibu beach the most photographed sand in Los Angeles. Go at low tide, leave before the light does.
The Strand bike path
Twenty two ocean front miles from Santa Monica through Venice to Redondo. Rent a cruiser at the pier and let the boardwalk circus provide the entertainment.
Crystal Cove
Three miles of unspoiled Orange County shore backed by vintage 1930s cottages and tidepools. The beachcomber breakfast at the historic district is the move.
Catalina Island's Avalon
A car free Mediterranean village 22 miles offshore, all golf carts, snorkel coves, and the round casino ballroom. The ferry ride doubles as a decompression chamber.
Cities & Culture
Griffith Observatory
Free admission, working telescopes, and the definitive view of the LA basin from the front lawn. Sunset into city lights is the full show.
The Hollywood Sign ridge
Hike the Brush Canyon trail to the ridge behind the letters, where the sign spreads below and the basin rolls to the sea. Morning light beats the haze.
Venice Canals
Two blocks from the boardwalk chaos, arched bridges cross mirror still canals left over from a 1905 dream of Venice. LA's most surprising quiet.
Balboa Park
Bigger than Central Park and stuffed with 1915 Spanish Colonial architecture, gardens, and museums. The El Prado promenade at golden hour is the city's best free show.
San Diego Zoo Safari Park
Herds of giraffes, rhinos, and antelope roam open valleys in Escondido while the Africa Tram tours the perimeter. Ride it first, right at opening.
The Ferry Building
San Francisco's 1898 ferry terminal reborn as a temple of California food, best approached on foot along the Embarcadero. Saturday farmers market is peak form.
Santa Barbara's waterfront
Stearns Wharf, the old mission, and red tile roofs against the Santa Ynez mountains. The American Riviera nickname is marketing that happens to be true.
Solvang
Windmills, half timbered bakeries, and aebleskiver in the middle of wine country. Kitsch executed with complete sincerity, and the pastries close the argument.
Old Sacramento
Wooden sidewalks, riverboats, and the excellent state railroad museum along the Sacramento River. The gold rush told at walking pace.
The Las Vegas Strip at night
Four miles of the strangest scenery in America, walked end to end after dark. Fountains, canals, a half scale Eiffel Tower, and ten thousand steps before you notice.
Wine & Gold Country
Napa Valley's Vine Trail
A flat paved path through the vineyards putting tasting rooms at pedal distance. Nothing improves wine country like arriving by bicycle.
Sonoma Plaza
The largest plaza in California, ringed by tasting rooms, adobes, and the mission that ended the chain. Napa's mellower neighbor at half the pretense.
Anderson Valley's Highway 128
Sparkling houses and Pinot in a fog cooled valley, then redwood tunnels all the way to the Mendocino coast. The prettiest wine drive in the state.
Paso Robles westside
Limestone hills, family wineries where the winemaker pours, and oak savanna roads made for wandering. Wine country at cowboy pace.
Livermore Valley
Fifty plus wineries in the Bay Area's own valley, with half price tastings and zero bridge traffic. The spontaneous Saturday wine country.
Shenandoah Valley, Amador
Gold rush era zinfandel vines and tasting rooms in barns, in the Sierra foothills east of Sacramento. The cheapest great pours in California.
Apple Hill
Orchards, pie barns, and cider donuts strung along Placerville's ridge roads every autumn. Go midweek in October and beat the caravan.
Calaveras Big Trees
Two groves of giant sequoias without the national park logistics, plus swimming holes on the Stanislaus in summer and quiet snow play in winter.
Columbia State Historic Park
A gold rush town preserved whole, with stagecoach rides, blacksmiths, and gold panning that still turns up color. History that smells like woodsmoke.
Nevada City
The prettiest Victorian main street in the Sierra foothills, wrapped in forest and fed by good cafes. December's candlelight Victorian Christmas is peak charm.
Keeping score
Our own count stands somewhere past sixty, and every new video moves it. If your count beats ours, we would genuinely like to hear about it, along with whatever you think we wrongly left off the list. There is no correct answer to the best 100 in California; there is only the argument, and the argument is the fun part.