Page 48 - 2019 Travel Guide to California

ROAD TRIPS
THE GLENDALE HILLS
near Los Angeles, right;
Golden Gate Bridge, below;
California Street cable car in
San Francisco, opposite top;
Pygmy Grove in Anza-
Borrego Desert State Park,
opposite bottom.
the Lone Pine Film History Museum pays
tribute to the hundreds of Hollywood West-
erns, starring everyone from Hopalong
Cassidy to John Wayne, filmed in the nearby
Alabama Hills.
A few tips: Springtime, when the Sierra
is still clad in snow, is the prettiest time for
the drive, although some side trips may be
limited. For an overnight stop, the town of
Bishop offers the largest selection of motels
and restaurants.
Day Trips
You don’t have to spend days or weeks on
the highway to see the best of California.
Within easy reach of major cities are exqui-
site road trips you can do in less than a day.
although these days they’re as likely to be
riding an all-terrain vehicle as a horse. Far-
ther south, as you approach Mono Lake,
you’ll probably encounter members of the
Washoe and Paiute tribes.
Highway 395 grazes the shore of enor-
mous Mono Lake, which is so alkaline Mark
Twain once joked he could do his laundry
merely by dragging it behind him in a boat.
In Bishop, the studio of the late photogra-
pher Galen Rowell has become a major
attraction. Stop at Manzanar, just off the
highway, for a poignant visit to the site of a
relocation camp for Americans of Japanese
heritage during World War II. In Lone Pine,
San Francisco
Head north, across the Golden Gate Bridge,
to sample some of Northern California’s
most bucolic scenery. Fortunately, much of
it was spared by the devastating Wine
Country fires of October 2017. Almost
within sight of San Francisco’s skyscrapers
you’ll come to Muir Woods National Mon-
ument, a cathedral-like preserve of
old-growth redwoods at the foot of Mount
Tamalpais. Follow Highway 1 to Point Reyes
National Seashore, where you might catch
tule elk grazing on misty hillsides above the
46 2019 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA
wave-battered coast. West Marin County,
with its organic farms, artisanal bakeries
and gourmet cheesemakers, is the bread-
basket for San Francisco’s foodie culture.
Stop for lunch at the Hog Island Oyster
Farm, where you can munch on bivalve
mollusks pulled straight from Tomales Bay.
The long, narrow bay, incidentally, is a sub-
merged section of the notorious San
Andreas Fault. Farther north on Highway 1
you’ll come to Bodega Bay, a sleepy fishing
village where Alfred Hitchcock unleashed
avian terror in The Birds. The Tides restau-
rant, where terrified townspeople took
shelter, is still there, although hardly recog-
nizable in its current form. A few miles
inland, in the separate town of Bodega, you
can find the familiar schoolhouse and
church from the movie. Continue on to
Sebastopol, renowned for its juicy Graven-
stein apples and an outpost of Sonoma
County’s wine country. Turn south on
Highway 101 and head back to San Fran-
cisco, stopping for a celebratory cocktail in
Sausalito, with the lights of the city twin-
kling across the bay.
Los Angeles
On a day trip along the Angeles Crest Scenic
Byway you’re more likely to spot a bighorn
sheep than a Kardashian. As you wind up
TREKANDSHOOT/SHUTTERSTOCK; R SCAPINELLO/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE: CITYPASS; DLHCA/SHUTTERSTOCK