101 reasons to lock in your next California trip
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Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, May 18.
If you’re planning your summer road trips or looking for fun destinations closer to home, The Times’ 101 best California experiences has arrived, hot off the digital presses.
This year’s list was crafted by Times travel writer Christopher Reynolds, who described the selection as “places that speak loudly and deeply to me about what California is, has been and can be.”
Christopher has been with The Times since 1990 and spent most of the last 30 years writing about travel, with many journeys around California.
“You never quite cover the whole state,” he told me this week. “Just when you think you’re beginning to understand it, it keeps on changing.”
The most challenging part putting together an admittedly “subjective” list is balancing the familiar places with those tucked away, Christopher said. Theme parks and some of the more obvious tourist traps are excluded, but there are a decent number of well-known staples sure to illicit some I’ve-been-theres.
Some shameful places in state history are also mapped — “painful, but it’s vital to face up to,” Christopher wrote. That includes Manzanar, where more than 10,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II.
What else stood out for Christopher this year? For one, “more chances to appreciate Native culture in California than there has been for many years.” He pointed to experiences offered by some of California’s Indigenous tribes — such as canoe trips on the Klamath River led by Yurok guides and ancient mineral baths belonging to the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
Looking through the list, I tallied 35 I’ve visited or experienced to some degree.
According to Christopher, “that’s pretty good,” though as a lifelong Californian, I’m slightly embarrassed I don’t have more check marks. But in such a grand state, there are also plenty of places and experiences I’ve had that are not on the list (so don’t get too down on yourselves if you’re feeling light on adventure).
Christopher hopes readers will come away with some inspiration for future travel — and find their own surprises along the way, adding:
“It’s great fun to embark on a trip aiming for one destination and while you’re there, find out about two more. Traveling is always that way. There’s the thing that you know you’re going to see, and then there’s the stuff that you don’t expect that really makes it special.”
He also hopes readers will reach out and tell him what he missed to help make next year’s list even more surprising.
“It’s really an inexhaustible state that we live in,” he said.
Here are several more of Christopher’s picks that caught my eye (and might get checked off in the near future). You can explore the full list and map combo here.
Wind down the American River in El Dorado County
Marvel at the mucho murals of Chicano Park in San Diego
Enjoy caboose cuisine in Half Moon Bay
Meet metal monsters in Borrego Springs
Ditch the mainland for Santa Cruz Island
I also spotted a few familiar places newsletter readers shouted out in our California landmark feature. Which reminds me: What other Golden State locales do you view as essentially Californian?
We’ve been featuring your landmark love with photos and your words on what makes them special for months now, but our stock is running a bit low these days. So help us out, folks!
Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made. Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State. Bonus points for those less-traveled, wonderfully weird spots.
Please be sure to only include photos taken directly by you. Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter (like the one you’ll find at the bottom of today’s edition).
And now, here’s what’s happening across California:
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L.A. STORIES
What might Los Angeles look like without its freeways? The Times’ Image editors asked artists to reimagine the roadways as reclaimed public and natural spaces. Los Angeles Times
Plans for a luxury hotel in Benedict Canyon can continue in the review process (for now) after the L.A. City Council deadlocked on a vote to block the controversial project. Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky led the effort against the development in her district, arguing that the resort would be inappropriate for the Santa Monica Mountains. Los Angeles Times
The L.A. County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to officially condemn the Zoot Suit Riots nearly 80 years after the violent, racist mob attacks began on L.A. streets. The attacks were incited by men in the military, who roamed streets targeting Latino, African American and Filipino youths. Los Angeles Times
POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT
Hundreds of bus drivers in San Diego are on strike, calling for the end of a policy of forced, unpaid breaks. The work stoppage has limited or fully shut down service for more than two dozen transit lines in the region. San Diego Union-Tribune
Walgreens is set to pay the city of San Francisco nearly $230 million to settle the last in a series of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers, distributors and dispensers. The city attorney’s office said the money would be used to address the city’s worsening opioid crisis. San Francisco Chronicle
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
Squalid conditions in properties managed by the nonprofit Skid Row Housing Trust led the city of L.A. to appoint a receiver named Mark Adams to take control of 29 buildings in Skid Row. But a Times investigation into Adams’ history managing similar receiverships in Southern California raises concerns about his care for vulnerable tenants. Los Angeles Times
How much money will it take to solve homelessness? About $2 billion annually, more than a dozen mayors from California’s largest cities told Gov. Gavin Newsom this week. The Sacramento Bee
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HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT
The latest scramble to prepare for the worst in California’s “Big Melt” is happening at oil fields along the Kern River. Federal engineers have been releasing reservoir water upstream as Chevron officials shut down wells and add other precautions to avoid a catastrophic oil spill. Los Angeles Times
CALIFORNIA CULTURE
NASA astronaut and California native Victor Glover Jr. will set some milestones when he pilots the Artemis II lunar mission in 2024. But he also has a meaningful mission here on Earth: as a messenger of the Black experience. “I really look forward to the point where it’s not remarkable that a Black man is exploring the solar system — or running this country,” he told Times reporter Tyrone Beason in a recent interview. Los Angeles Times
PERSPECTIVES
Nicholas Goldberg: Is everybody really happy that Dianne Feinstein is back at her desk? Los Angeles Times
Opinion: Neo-Nazis have arrived. Is it time to ban free speech on SLO County overpass? San Luis Obispo Tribune
Carolina A. Miranda: Stop the doom loop, I want to get off. Reports on San Francisco miss the big picture. Los Angeles Times
Commentary: LACMA has transitioned to a de facto contemporary art museum. But not a very good one. Los Angeles Times
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AND FINALLY
Today’s California landmark is from Annee Elliot of Los Angeles: Leo Carillo State Beach.
Annee writes:
My favorite beach. The coves are beautiful and it’s a great location for photo shoots as there’s a lot of diversity.
What are California’s essential landmarks? Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made. Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State. Please be sure to include only photos taken directly by you. Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter.
Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
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