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.
