Camping out on a 1,170-mile odyssey from Sequoia National Park to Majestic Yosemite and Santa Barbara

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine into trees. --John Muir

Amid the many celebrated images of California dreaming, the play of light on spectacular natural stages was the undisputed star, such as at dawn when the sun’s rays filtered through the pines of the Giant Forest at our Sequoia National Park campground.

By midday we stood before Vernal Falls in Yosemite National Park, awed by the blue, yellow, red, orange and purple hues of a rainbow dancing in the mist.

At sunset along Pacific Coast Highway we marveled at the transforming sky of pastels, tangerine and pink. Later that evening an almost eerie light silhouetted the mountains.

Around the next bend we discovered its source--a full moon reflecting on the ocean--brilliant, romantic, hypnotic. Out of the darkness, ever so faintly, came the honking of seals and sea lions.

My wife Katherine and I recently spent eight days on a 1,170-mile journey through Northern and Central California. We slept in a tent but ate at several memorable restaurants. The entire trip cost us about $700.

Natural wonders abounded. We craned our necks at the giant sequoias and went below ground to explore the stalactites and stalagmites in Crystal Cave. We saw a regal-looking deer with eight points on his antlers, his eyes glistening like jewels as he munched on leaves, his legs graceful as a ballet artist when he darted away.

At Monterey Bay we watched sea otters cavort in the Pacific. We saw dozens of seals and sea lions lounging and nuzzling on Bird Rock along the renowned 17-Mile Drive.

We enjoyed man-made pleasures, too. We dined in the baronial, 60-year-old Ahwahnee Lodge in Yosemite. We browsed in the galleries and boutiques lining Carmel’s flower-filled streets. And we toured Hearst Castle at San Simeon, one man’s bid to exceed nature’s grandeur.

We returned convinced that California is called the “Golden State” for good reason.

Day one saw us climbing from the hot, dry chaparral of the foothills to the cooler clime of the redwoods, pines and cedars in Sequoia National Park on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada. It was greener and more lush by the time we saw our first sequoia at 3,800 feet. We were headed for Lodgepole Campground at about 7,000 feet.

The drought had made the black bears bolder, and sightings were common. We carefully followed the rangers’ instructions to keep all food and even toiletries out of the car and safely stored in metal lockers at the site.

We were glad we did. A muddy print on the door of my car one morning indicated that an intruder had checked out the back seat for goodies while we slept. Mere windows and doors are no impediment to a hungry bear on the prowl.

“They come to the roadsides. They come to the picnic grounds. They come to the trails,” a ranger told an elderly couple asking about bears at the park’s orientation center. “But people who want to see them never see them. It’s only those who don’t want to see them who do.”

But the trees were there for everyone to see. Some of the giant sequoias, which can grow to more than 270 feet and have a circumference of more than 100 feet, are more than 3,000 years old.

Their sheer bulk is difficult to comprehend. But consider: three freeway lanes could pass through a hole in the trunk. One branch, measuring six to eight feet in diameter, is larger than any tree that grows east of the Mississippi.

We viewed the trees at Congress Trail and Grant Grove in nearby Kings Canyon. We also hiked up monolithic Moro Rock for a spectacular 100-mile panorama of the surrounding mountains and valleys. There we encountered park ranger Loren Shryer, a former schoolteacher.

“I’m still a teacher,” Shryer said with a smile, his arm sweeping toward a vista of unspoiled terrain as far as the eye could see. “But look at my classroom.”

Down below, we explored the Crystal Caves, formed 200 million years ago and discovered in 1918 by two park service employees who felt the cool draft of the cave entrance while fishing. The long, icicle-shaped deposits grow only an inch each century.

While pointing out the various formations, our guide said that the caves are considered a perfectly safe place to be during an earthquake.

Leaving Sequoia, we drove 175 miles north to Yosemite, with its majestic granite walls, waterfalls and meadows. Like Sequoia, it was crowded. This year more than 3.2 million people are expected to visit the park. Reservations are recommended, especially for the coveted campsites and tent cabins on the valley floor.

Still, there is something to be said for shaving over a picnic table in the morning with the green of pine trees and clear blue sky reflected in the mirror--even if your face, sans hot water, feels like sandpaper.

We escaped further by trekking one mile up to Vernal Falls. A rigorous 1,000-foot climb was rewarded by a close encounter with the falls and a refreshing dunk in a lake fed by Nevada Falls, visible in the distance.

A rock slide forced us to take the horse trail back down. We did so, stepping gingerly.

After a shower and a change of clothes, we headed for the Ahwahnee Lodge, pausing long enough to photograph a deer and her fawn feeding in a meadow.

The Ahwahnee, built to Yosemite scale, exploits the park’s beauty. The dining room is 130 feet long, 51 feet wide and 34 feet high, with views of Glacier Point and Yosemite Falls framed by massive granite stone buttresses and sugar pine pillars. We dined by candlelight on escargot, yellowtail and veal Francaise.

During an after-dinner stroll, El Capitan’s granite wall glowed in the moonlight, its crown of pine trees silhouetted beneath a halo of stars.

There are two ways to beat the crowds at Yosemite: go deeper into the park, perhaps up to Tuolumne Meadows, or visit it during the off-season, particularly winter. Though you have to prepare for cold, snowy conditions, Mallory Smith, one of the park rangers, recommends a winter visit.

“Every crack and crevice along the cliff walls gets filled with snow and it brings out the design and the relief of the valley even more than the summer time,” she said. “The valley floor will often be blanketed with snow. You’ll see a lot of coyotes and occasionally a bobcat.”

Yosemite also boasts the oldest recreational ski area in California, at Badger Pass. Cross-country skiing is possible often during winter.

Following a nap at Mirror Lake (which is fast becoming Mirror Meadow as sand washes down from the mountains), we drove down from Yosemite and through the cattle ranches, farms and baked plains of the San Joaquin Valley.

We were on our way to the Basalt Recreation Area at San Luis Reservoir, where we spent the night.

The next morning we drove across Pacheco Pass, past Castroville, “the artichoke capital of the world,” and on to Monterey Bay. Here was a mild dose of culture shock: from the backwoods of California to the boutiques of Carmel.

At Flaherty’s at the Plaza, seated next to a fountain and surrounded by hot pink petunias and jasmine, we lunched on a salad of bay shrimp and artichoke hearts. Civilization has its compensations.

After enjoying the scenic 17-Mile Drive around Pebble Beach that evening, we had drinks at the elegant Pacific Edge restaurant in Carmel Highlands. We watched the sun melt into the Pacific, leaving behind a magical array of salmon-colored clouds floating above the sea.

Dinner at Creme Carmel was also memorable. Chef-owner Craig Ling prepares fine California-French cuisine, applying French techniques to fresh local ingredients. Our meal, the best of the trip, included loin of lamb roasted with rosemary and garlic, and roast duckling with fresh plums, topped off with a luscious raspberry chocolate mousse cake.

The next day a visit to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in a converted sardine factory proved educational. We found a film tracing the transformation of whales in Hollywood films from villains to heroes interesting.

But the highlight was our walk through Cannery Row to a pier where scores of California sea lions were lolling in the sun on a jetty that serves as a stop on their migration route. We walked to within 30 feet of this honking, snorting, sun-bathing retinue--one of the few places where this is possible.

Thirty miles south of Carmel on Pacific Coast Highway we pulled into Nepenthe, the funky, fabled restaurant high over the coastline where the post-’60s hippies meet ‘80s yuppies. This is the kind of place where the waitress describes the daily special, thresher shark, as “the small guys who live at the bottom of the ocean and don’t eat surfers.”

We wound our way past the rocky promontories of Big Sur, where boulders jutted into the blue-green sea like whales about to breech. For mile after twisting mile along this scenic ribbon of highway between the mountains and the ocean, nothing but jagged rock and the seemingly endless Pacific were visible against a changing twilight sky.

Our destination the next day was Hearst Castle near San Luis Obispo. There are four different 75-minute tours of the Castle. Reservations are recommended.

Continuing down the coast, we ended our journey with dinner at Oysters Seafood, a favorite restaurant in Santa Barbara.

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In Sequoia National Park, you can make reservations at Lodgepole Campground for $8 a night from May to mid-September through Ticketron. Other campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis for $4 to $6. Call (209) 565-3456 for campground information.

Cabins are $25 to $75 a night. Call (209) 561-3314 for cabin reservations.

In Yosemite Valley, 836 sites are available through Ticketron for $11 a night. Reservations are highly recommended. Sites elsewhere in the park can be reserved for $9.

Canvas tent cabins are available for $26, cabins for $39 to $51 and rooms at Yosemite Lodge for $66 to $84. Rooms at Ahwahnee Lodge are $187 a night. For reservations, call (209) 252-4848.

Reservations are needed for dinner at the Ahwahnee. Dinner for two: $70 to $80 without wine.

In Carmel, The Green Lantern, 7th and Casanova, P.O. Box 1114, (408) 624-4392, is a conveniently located bed and breakfast with a friendly staff. Its 19 rooms range from $65 to $125.

In nearby Pacific Grove, The House of the Seven Gables Inn, 555 Ocean View Blvd., (408) 372-4341, offers antique furnishings and unobstructed views of Monterey Bay. Rates for its 14 rooms are $95 to $165.

Flaherty’s at the Plaza, in Carmel Plaza, has a flower-bedecked outdoor dining patio and an eclectic mix of well-prepared food. Lunch for two: $20 to $25.

Creme Carmel in San Carlos, between 7th and Ocean, offers exquisite California-French cuisine in an attractive, candlelit ambience. Dinner for two: $80-$90.

Reservations are recommended for weekend visits to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, a wonderful place for children. Tickets are $7 for adults and $3 for children, through Ticketron (408) 247-7469 or (415) 392-7469.

Nepenthe (three miles south of Big Sur on California 1) serves simple food in a breathtaking setting overlooking an 800-foot cliff. Try “the famous Ambrosiaburger.” Dinner for two: $25 to $40. Lunch: $20 to $25.

The J. Patrick House, 2990 Burton Drive, Cambria, (805) 927-3812, is a warm country inn just minutes from Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Rates for the eight rooms are $85 to $105.

Reservations are recommended for the four walking tours of Hearst Castle (Tour 1 is a good introduction). Tickets are $10 for adults. Call (800) 444-7275 or (619) 452-1950 for reservations and information.

Simpson House Inn, 121 E. Arrellaga St., Santa Barbara, (805) 963-7067, is an exceptionally hospitable bed and breakfast. Its six rooms run $90 to $140.

Oysters Seafood, 9 W. Victoria, Santa Barbara, serves fresh seafood in creative, savory sauces. Dinner for two: $40 to $50.