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.
VISIT STOCKTON; MATT GUSH/SHUTTERSTOCK; MIKE BRAKE/SHUTTERSTOCK
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.
90 2024-25 TRAVEL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA