#avenue-of-the-giants

#avenue-of-the-giants

Driving the Avenue of the Giants is a unique and beautiful experience. As it winds through Humboldt-Redwoods State Park, you will encounter many spectacular groves of redwoods and hiking trail options.

"At his peak, Dean Potter was a figure similar to Alex Honnold-the leading free-soloist in the game. But he was also a much more enigmatic and eccentric character than Honnold. It is also true that Potter remains one of the all-time great culture heroes of American rock-climbing."

Kirkwood has had a pretty solid past few days, seeing 42 inches of snow through the past 7 days, 31 of which fell in the past 48 hours. As of April 13th, Kirkwood has 5 lifts spinning with 45 of 84 trails open to skiers and snowboarders.

"Our message is- we're not looking for a fight, we're looking for time to explore other options," Armer added.

"no witchcraft, no enemy action had silenced the rebirth of new life in this stricken world. The people had done it themselves." Carson identified human pesticide use as the cause of environmental destruction, establishing personal responsibility for nature's decline and setting the foundation for her revolutionary environmental critique.

The nine national parks in the Golden State - including Yosemite, Death Valley and Joshua Tree - attracted nearly 12 million recreational visits in 2025, according to statistics from the National Park Service. That's up more than 800,000 visits from 2024 and up more than 300,000 from the previous record set in 2019, according to the data, which stretches back to 1979.

The new trees number in the thousands - at least 4,000 per acre or as many as 20,000, depending on who is counting. A few rise above head-height, the most energetic sentinels of regeneration. What will become of this nursery in the wild in the next hundred years, or thousand, is the crux of a scientific and policy dispute.

Get up early to drive into the hills and park in the main lot, which opens 30 minutes before sunrise. This will leave you with enough time to make your way to the peak through the wildflower-scattered trails and watch the sunrise over the Bay.

For 2025, there was good news and bad news: overall, these areas were visited 323 million times over the course of the year. That's the good news; the bad news is that this figure was down ever so slightly - specifically, 2.7% - from a record-setting 2024.

The flurry of quakes rattled close to a relatively unknown fault called Blue Cut, according to Kate Scharer, a research geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey's Earthquake Hazards Program in Pasadena. "This happened in Joshua Tree National Park, a beautiful part of the world where many people have actually probably been and unknowingly traversed near this fault," Scharer told SFGATE. "This is a good reminder that there are many other faults besides the San Andreas in California that can give us a little jolt."

As a SoCal resident, I visit Anza-Borrego at least once a year to explore the sandstone Slot canyon and surrounding desert, keeping an eye out for animals like chuckwalla lizards and bighorn sheep. Despite its incredibly dry environment (the park averages just four to eight inches of rain a year, and summertime temps routinely hit the hundreds), Anza-Borrego teems with life and opportunities to explore one of the nation's most unique ecosystems.

"Wildflower growth depends on a delicate mix of weather factors, including rain and its timing, amount of sunlight, seasonal temperature patterns, and wind," State Parks wrote in its forecast. "Depending on the region and weather, the peak bloom season typically begins in mid-February onward." Currently, some colors have already been spotted in both the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is northeast of San Diego, and the Red Rock Canyon State Park, which sits north of Los Angeles.

Not only do we have an amazing trail with 10 waterfalls (four of which you can walk behind), but it's a great place to see and learn about plants and wildlife. We also have several historic buildings that are open to the public-all built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s and 1940s.

Global travel booking website Skyscanner has named its top five destinations for solo travel this winter, and a Northern California favorite the Sonoma Coast made the list. The Sonoma Coast invites a different kind of stillness, the guide notes, praising the rugged shoreline as an antidote to crowded itineraries and overplanned escapes. The roundup also includes Guadalupe Mountains National Park in Texas, Tangier Island in Virginia, Olympic National Park in Washington and Red River Gorge in Kentucky.