California June Roadtrip Suggestions

[muted reborn]

Santa Cruz - SF - Mendecino sounds like a great time to me. Ghosthop those are great pics. And hit Tahoe on your way.120 is closed to snow

Point Reyes is a peaceful place to camp if there are any reservations available. And Timber Cove is half way to Mendecino - Ansel Adams lived there so it can't be too bad. Timber Cove resort looks sweet to stay and eat. If you end up planning to go to that area and need specific good camping places along that coast I have a friend who lives there and can help.

One piece of advice is if you are traveling through most of Cali and want to just park and camp quickly with no plan, it's really hard to do compared to other states. Everywhere has a "no camping" sign in pullouts, random dead end roads, etc.

Yosemite will suck to access if 120 is closed, and the San Joaquin Valley sucks to drive in especailly in the summer.

[45hill]

Plugboots is reading my mind on Yosemite, but if it's worth putting up with the crowds then I suppose we might consider it. I was also thinking it's not the greatest idea with the dog coming along.

It is worth the stop to see the falls absolutely nuking. If you have never been to Yosemite after a big year then you are missing out. Weekends have actually been less crowded because everyone was making reservations on week days or going midweek before the reservation system. This has been my experience the last 10-15 years.

It is worth the trip to see The Valley, Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite Falls, Tunnel View, Glacier Point, and the Tuolumne Grove. The Valley is a jaw dropper no matter how many times I have seen been there. If you don't go you are really missing out. Standing on the bridge at Lower Falls will be a highlight that the kids will never forget. If you can bring the dog to Vernal Falls, do it. Doing everything above is a very big day. If you get Sequoia elsewhere skip the Tuolumne Grove.

There is going to be so much water.

[LongShortLong]

Lots of good suggestions, thanks all. For Monterey Bay/Santa Cruz/Big Sur area - any camping in those areas or would we be better off renting a place?

Not much driving? Do you want to park and not move for several days? How much hiking? How much mall/restaurant/amusement park?

Monterrey and Santa Cruz have a bunch of campgrounds near the beach (on the bluff or behind the dunes, etc). Reservations may be tough especially on weekends. There's campgrounds in Big Sur area too (Pfeiffer Burns has redwoods), coast is mountainous there. May be rules about enter/exit late at night. Coastal weather statewide will be fog, and 60-70 degrees, cold feeling. Warmer if the fog breaks in the afternoon. There's redwood trees around Santa Cruz, a steam railroad in them on hwy 9, and Big Basin State Park has some bigger ones. The really tall redwoods are far too the north near Eureka.

Inland from the coast, fog is gone and it'll warm up steadily or quickly until you reach the Central Valley where it may be 90-110 degrees. The Sierras will cool back to 70/80 as you go up (Tahoe/Yosemite/Mammoth/Big Bear), with chance of afternoon t-storm. Microclimates are a thing, and it's possible a walk goes from 60 degrees to 90 degrees as you pass out of marine air (I've experienced this in just ten feet from on a ridge to down the lee).

If you're hikers, and visit SF bay, I suggest taking a day to hike a local peak, many have excellent views. Mt Umunhum, Mt. Tam, Mt. Diablo, Mission Peak, each a good choice. If you want a city hike with many views, you could loop Embarcadero (bay piers), Market (skyscrapers), Powell/something/Hyde to Lombard (famous twisty road), to Fishermans's Wharf, and back along the Embarcadero. No cable car ride unless you wait in long line.

History. Maybe assign the kids some reading. Example early characters - Junipero Serra (coastal Spanish mission chain), John Sutter (gold rush), John Muir (Yosemite/Sierra Club), Mulholland (LA aqueduct), Stanford (Transcontinental RR). Donner Party diaries (Tahoe), Manly's "Death Valley in 49" (probably too hot there in June). If you settle on Monterrey, John Steinbeck sets his novels near there (e.g. "Cannery Row" - literally at the Aquarium, "Of Mice and Men" - Salinas Valley).

Getting in/out - If you go via Yosemite, check out Hwy6 and Tonopah. Getting places in general - You need to mark everything you're considering on a map and decide how much you're willing to drive. Most places will take most of the day to get to/from. E.g. 5 or 6 hours Mammoth to LA, same for LA to Monterrey, Monterrey to Kings Canyon/Sequoia (or Yosemite, or Redwoods NP). So picking one area or two may be best.

[mcski]

What do the kids prefer? Outdoorsy crap or theme park/urban tourism?

[dunfree]

If you’ve kids and are trying to show, or see, California history stop at a mission. I thought the best preserved in terms of siting was San Antonio de Padua near Jolon. It’s on an army base so it’s close to the lonely place they were, unlike many of the other missions are now. You used to be able to go from there over the coast range via road to highway 1 and then by Big Sur up to Monterey. On the way down to Jolon stop off at Pinnacles National Park and see some condors/ go for a hike/ stop at a winery. Camping near the beach might be hard and the interior might be hot.

Yosemite Valley at heavy runoff is something to behold, and not something to miss.

I think the redwoods LSL is talking about near Santa Cruz on highway 9 are at Henry Cowell State Park, which also offered in the past camping. The camping isn’t in the redwoods, it’s in the Sandhills, if you head north towards Felton there used to be an escarpment of sand cliffs that were kinda cool. There’s plenty of random redwoods in canyons around the central coast but most of them are second or third generation outside of parks

There are a several ridge/coastal mountain hikes along highway 1 that give great views of the ocean and a pretty rare experience - it’s certainly not CO/UT. One in particular I remember, but can’t name, was a ridge cliff trail high up but not far from the pacific

[Not DJSapp]

Welcome touron! California is big. Really, really big. And hard to access. 10 days is not enough, unless you want to just drive the whole damn time. If you want to camping in June at a campground, you needed to make reservations in Feb.

Logistics: coming to CA via car in mid-June. Limited options to enter/exit the state. 5 to the North to OR, 80 and 50 via Tahoe, 15 via Vegas, or 40, 10 and 8 through the desert. Odds are very high 120 via Yosemite will be closed, it didn't open until June 29 of 2017, and this year is bigger than that. The Eastern Sierra via 395 is beautiful, but it is cutoff and Yosemite is a dead end instead of a shortcut of sorts.

Here's my credentials: I'm born and bred CA. My folks were big on seeing all of the state when I was growing up, so we did. Everything listed is something I've done.

FYI: We love pets and I'm sure your dog is awesome, but our tourist attractions by and large are not dog friendly, including national parks. Your dog is a big issue. Assuming you ditch the dog, here's a big list of things that might be interesting

Socal - Has it all, except nature because there's 20 million people there and its all paved
Disneyland - a classic for kids of all ages. Your kids might not think they like Disneyland until they walk in. The rat is the master of the craft and will eat your whole paycheck. And you'll be happy the whole time as you pay for it all.
Magic Mountain - arguably top 3 destination for roller coasters on the planet if that's your thing
Universay Studios - Harry Potter land is pretty damn good if that's your thing.
Knott's Berry Farm - Solid 1 day amusement park. Might get shanked, they had some security issues last summer
Legoland - probably too young for tweens unless they're hardcore lego fans, but really cool if lego is your jam
Any Orange County Beach - it's exactly what you'd expect, large open beaches that are nicer than LA County beaches. Lots of room. No parking to be found after 10am. Get a surf lesson for lots of fun.
Venice Beach - an absolute mismash junkshow scene of tourist trap, artists, street performers, junkies, and hollywood posers hoping to get noticed. Fun for a while to take in the scene
Griffity Observatory - SPACE
Getty Center - World famous art museum
San Diego Zoo - Absolutely world class facility
Tacos - everywhere
Fish Tacos - almost everywhere
LA Dodgers - Sit in the bleachers and get in a fight
La Brea tar pits - if you have a Dinosaur loving kid, this is mecca
Hollywood - you can see just how thin the glitz and glamour veneer really is, it's actually a bit interesting if that's your thing
Thousands of great restaurants, music venues, and so much more.

Deserts
Joshua Tree/Mojave/Death Valley - check up on your AC before you depart CO and just see them while driving. Don't get out. Not in June. Hot by 8 am, deadly by 10.
Needles/Lake Havasu - If you someone with a boat on the river, it's actually a good time.

Central Coast
Highway 1 from Morro Bay to Monterey - a beautiful drive, breathtaking views. But the road currently doesn't go through due to landslides and repair work, which makes the central coast another bit of a dead end location. Not thilling as an 11 year old.
Hearst Castle is beautiful and a bit historic, but a bit out of the way for a fancy house. If you can manage to get in on a swim in the Neptune pool, do that for sure and be Gatsby.
Monterey Bay Aquarium is world class, kids that love the ocean will spend a day here. Get in very early before it gets crowded, and go check out tidepools in carmel in the afternoon. Cannery row is a tourist shithole, gtfo. Dennis the Menace park is an all-time playground for the kids, but they might be too old. It's free and dog friendly
Santa Cruz Boardwalk is good cheesy beach carnival fun. Rides, beach, pier.
Laguna Seca - awesome racetrack even just for simple events
Pismo Beach - Drive around and camp on the beach, or rent a quad and go be a redneck on the dunes! BRRRAAAPPP BRRRAAPPPP!!!
Vandenburg AFB - If the timing works, maybe see SpaceX/Blue Origin shoot one off

Central Valley
There actually are a few good things here, just nothing worth your short time. Once we have a better idea of that you want out of a trip, stops can be added as you pass through

Central Sierra
Yosemite - Yes, it will be crowded. Yes, the waterfalls will be all time and I'm planning on going in June/July because it is going to be all time. Yes, just about every trail in the valley is paved so you can take the dog. No, Tioga road to the Eastern Sierra will not be open by July 4th this year, probably later. It will still be absolutely amazing, there is no place like this on Earth. I've been at tunnel view with 10 buses of Asian and German tourists jamming the parking lot and it's still a place of wonder and amazement. Just go. I think Mariposa Grove will open late this year for road repair, so you might not get the big trees here.
Sequia and Kings Canyon - Cut rate Yosemite, still great, but it's not Yosemite. More big trees. Will still be crowded with all the people that thought Yosemite would be too crowded so they went here. The secret is out. Just go to Yosemite instead.

Eastern Sierra
Most hiking is likely snowbound this year and sadly not worth the detour as it's isolated
Mammoth will be open and is IKONIC if you need to try the CA snowpack.
Ancient Bristlecone Pines are otherworldly, but likely closed due to snow this June
Manzanar is a historic reminder that your grandparents are racist

San Francisco/Bay Area
Ride a cable car
Exploratorium is a great kids science museum
Watch a bum shit on the sidewalk
Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge
Muir Woods if you can get in. It will be crowded, but it will scratch the giant redwood itch without burning a whole day or two to get there
Acadamy of Sciences is another great science museum
Catch a musical on Market St
Buy hard drugs on Market St
Catch a Giants game in a really nice luxary stadium for some big bucks
Catch an A's game and piss in a 30' long trough inside a momument to concrete for under 10 bucks. See why the Raiders left and the A's are moving to Vegas.
Napa Valley/Wine Country - not for kids
Great America/Six Flags Vallejo - Norcal has roller coasters too! Just not as good as Socal
Sears Point - another good racetrack even for basic weekend events

Sacramento and Sac Valley
Old town Sac and the Train Museum can scratch the history lesson itch for the wild west
Pan for gold up in the foothills
Downieville for mountainbiking

More later. It's a big state.

[MontuckyFried]

^^
That's quite the guide, Not DJSapp!!! That might have to become a sticky. Solid stuff. You're right. It really needs to be a region by region basis. Pick one and go with it. However, ONE day, I'd love to do the Pacific Coast trek from PCH (CA Hwy 1) to US Hwy 101 from San Diego to Seattle and on up to Vancouver. Although that might have to wait until I'm retired or something cuz that's gonna be a looooong trip that the kids will probably get sick of after a few days. Lol

[truckeelocal]

^^^^ No love for presidential libraries in SoCal ? Nixon is Govmnt funded, Reagan not so a bit more skewed but both interesting for kids, not dogs.
Or Channel Islands where getting there is half the fun ... huge pods of dolphins and frolicking humpbacks although the whales may be North by now.
Date shakes in the desert.
Train museum in Sac. Capitol Building in Sac to see the bear on the CA flag. And to see where Arnold didn't work ... he had a tent in the grounds so he could smoke his cigars. Also Gerry Brown's first portrait - his MiL didn't like it but I do for what its worth.

[canyonrider]

Hot damn, this is great. I need to set aside some time to go through all of it. Kids generally prefer outdoorsy stuff, but I'm sure would be keen for the aquarium, amusement park, or other urban attractions for a couple of days. And I totally get that the dog is a limiting factor, we may rethink that.

[mcski]

If you end up in Big Sur or central coast, Hearst Castle is definitely worth a visit.

NOT DJ - great list. I think we might have the same mother. Although mine would be adamant about showing out of state friends most of that in a long weekend. Lol

[truckeelocal]

A good parent will have one of these California Road and Recreation Atlas - 11th Edition, 2021 (Benchmark): Benchmark Maps, Benchmark Maps, Benchmark Maps: 9781734315035: Amazon.com: Books for each state they go through. Doesn't help the dog though.

And a constructive idea that the road trip limited to east side Sierra, 395 from Tahoe/Reno down to Ridgecrest. Deserts and mountains, not beach, but sand dunes. 'Cause there's other stuff here like the moth-ball fleet of planes, world's largest thermometer, world's oldest trees (but snow), Whitney to see how CO was cheated out by a few feet, Mono Lake. Driving across Nevada is an adventure unto itself in its own boring way, unless you're a geologist and realize why all the mountains are N/S.

[The AD]

The missions are a cool bit of history. Try to get to one of them. Some are better than others, obviously, but there are a total of 21 so odds are you'll be near at least one of them. I think even kids would find them interesting for at least an hour or two.

[muted reborn]

Driving from Colorado to LA / San Diego to go to amusement parks sounds insane to me. That's a fly-in trip.

[The AD]

^ Another reason to leave the dog at home

[fatnslow]

^^
That's quite the guide, Not DJSapp!!! That might have to become a sticky. Solid stuff. You're right. It really needs to be a region by region basis. Pick one and go with it. However, ONE day, I'd love to do the Pacific Coast trek from PCH (CA Hwy 1) to US Hwy 101 from San Diego to Seattle and on up to Vancouver. Although that might have to wait until I'm retired or something cuz that's gonna be a looooong trip that the kids will probably get sick of after a few days. Lol

You're from a state that sells guns to even shelter dogs so chances are you'll be killed by your kids after 6 hours in the car when you tell them your itinerary....

[Supermoon]

If I had 7-10 days I would spend it going from the Redwoods down the coast, through SF for a day or two, Monterey (the Aquarium is a must, IMO with or without kids), then a day or two going through Big Sur and ending in like SLO or Pismo before heading home. Could spend a night on either end in Tahoe area but if you're trying to get a different experience than UT/CO, the coast is a must.

[GiBo]

If I had 7-10 days I would spend it going from the Redwoods down the coast, through SF for a day or two, Monterey (the Aquarium is a must, IMO with or without kids), then a day or two going through Big Sur and ending in like SLO or Pismo before heading home. Could spend a night on either end in Tahoe area but if you're trying to get a different experience than UT/CO, the coast is a must.

Sound advice.

I personally would not spend one second of a trip to California of that duration (or any duration, probably) south of the Grapevine.

[bodywhomper]

There are a lot of dog friendly locations. We sometimes travel with ours and sometimes don’t, depending on the goals for the trip.

One thing, it can be fucking sunny in a lot of places in the state in June where it won’t be safe to leave a dog in a car even for a quick grocery run.

On a dirtbag level, we’ve camped at the private campground in olema (Marin co) and staged day trips to SF, southern Marin co coast, and point Reyes area. Depending on chosen spots, all could be dog friendly.

There are some nice private campgrounds scattered around the state that don’t book as quickly as the government campgrounds that are in great locations and are dog friendly.

[MontuckyFried]

You're from a state that sells guns to even shelter dogs so chances are you'll be killed by your kids after 6 hours in the car when you tell them your itinerary....

LMAO. Quite possibly. Thus why I better wait til they've flown the coop.

[The AD]

I personally would not spend one second of a trip to California of that duration (or any duration, probably) south of the Grapevine.

Where's that? I doubt anyone outside the state is going to know what "The Grapevine" is.

[MontuckyFried]

Monterey (the Aquarium is a must, IMO with or without kids)

Indeed!!! Here are some highlights from my trip a few years back where our friends here did NOT steer me wrong. Lots of solid advice that paid off.

The Golden Gate Bridge was neat to see:


As was Alcatraz! Absolutely worth seeing (don't mind random lady's hair in the pic - was super windy of course):


Enjoyed seeing the Capitol building and the downtown area while I was in Sacramento on business:


But seriously, the Monterey Bay Aquarium was where it was at! Place was off the hook. I've been to a lot of aquariums and this one ranks up there as one of the best.
Here's the place where they shot some of Star Trek IV!!! Being edited of course to show whales in this spot:


The kelp forest exhibit was great:


And thought you guys would appreciate this one. Some local clam that looks like a giant shlong called a "Gaper Clam." The description makes it even more hilarious:

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Where's that? I doubt anyone outside the state is going to know what "The Grapevine" is.

And I thought you were posting like you knew all about CA. If you don’t know what The Grapevine is you shouldn’t be giving tourism advice [emoji848]


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[fatnslow]

If the op ends up in SF I would recommend Marin Headland Park, just on the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

[The AD]

And I thought you were posting like you knew all about CA. If you don’t know what The Grapevine is you shouldn’t be giving tourism advice [emoji848]

That's one place I've missed, I guess.

Also, I'm only speaking as a tourist and giving advice to another tourist. I don't claim to be an expert on living in California since I never have. I stand by my assertion that tourists don't know what the Grapevine is.

[dunfree]

Where's that? I doubt anyone outside the state is going to know what "The Grapevine" is.

Not a death cab for cutie fan? It’s the big pass on I5 outside of greater la that gets you to the Central Valley. I wouldn’t say there’s nothing south of the grapevine worth seeing, but that really depends on which of the many Californias you want to see. There were a ton of ethnic restaurants in greater LA. Practically any cuisine you can think of. Which might be housed in a shifty strip mall but be great food. In addition to the Gettys - there’s the villa in Malibu with Ancient Greek & Roman art and the LA one with more recent stuff, there’s the la county museum of art and the Huntington library. Henry was the son of Colis one of the Big4 railway barons who ended the mission era of California. The other 3 were Leland Stanford (the U he endowed has a decent art museum), Mark Hopkins (there was an eponymous hotel in SF that’s probably well past prime), and Charles Crocker (he built the huge hotel del monte near Monterey, which is now the naval postgraduate school)