Page 92 - 2024-2025 Travel Guide to California

SUNSET PADDLE BOARDING at Lodi Lake, right; flower farming in Central
Valley, bottom; Sandhill Crane Festival, below.
City & Town
College-town Davis has been ranked the
number one most bike-friendly city in the
U.S. Modesto and its hot rods were the stars
of American Graffiti—and auto fans still flock
to the valley city. Fresno’s architectural his-
tory includes brick warehouses along the
Santa Fe railroad tracks and the 1928 Pantages
Theatre (now Warnors Center for the Per-
forming Arts).
The Great Outdoors
A sprawling web of rivers twists through the
Central Valley—from the Sacramento to the
San Joaquin to the Feather. The best place to
enjoy river life is in the Sacramento Delta,
with lush wetlands among vast orchards.
The Sutter Buttes—considered the world’s
smallest mountain range—rise above the
flat valley at its northernmost point.
INSIDER’S TIP
Catch an MiLB baseball game at Banner Island Ballpark, home of the STOCKTON
PORTS. An offshoot of the team credited with inspiring Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s
famous “Casey at the Bat” poem, the Ports got their name because Stockton was
California’s only inland port.
VISIT STOCKTON; MATT GUSH/SHUTTERSTOCK; MIKE BRAKE/SHUTTERSTOCK
90 2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA