Route 66 is an icon of the golden age of automobile travel in America. While US Highway 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985, it’s still easy to travel pieces of this route from Chicago to Los Angeles and revisit a bit of history along the way. While not officially a National Park, Route 66 […]
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Category: California
Joshua Tree
Joshua Tree National Park, California is a wild desert landscape of rock formations and the iconic trees for which it was named. Established as a National Monument in 1936, it was upgraded to a National Park in 1994. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating Scenery Uniqueness Wildlife Diversity ILNP Park Review In […]
Juan Bautista de Anza
The Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail runs through southern Arizona and up the California coast to commemorate the historic route taken in 1774 by de Anza and a small party and in in 1775-1776 with around 240 Spanish colonists to establish the first non-native settlement in the San Francisco area. Visitor Rating (write […]
Santa Monica Mountains
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California, was established in 1978 after decades of attempts to protect these beautiful lands from further incursion. The park is actually a patchwork of public and private lands including several state parks. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Weather. Mostly clear and upper 80s. […]
Channel Islands
Channel Islands National Park, California, encompasses five of the Channel Islands off the coast of California near Santa Barbara and the waters surrounding them. Some of these islands were overrun by non-native species and are being restored to their natural state while others stand as the last vestige of California as it used to be. […]
Cabrillo
Cabrillo National Monument lies on Point Loma near San Diego, California and protects several landmarks including the landing spot of Spanish explorer Juan Cabrillo, an early lighthouse, World War II defenses, and an ecosystem of coastal tide pools. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating ILNP Park Review Our Visit. I visited Cabrillo […]
Death Valley
Death Valley, California, converted from a monument to a National Park in 1994, protects the lowest point in the US and the ecosystem surrounding one of the driest spots on Earth. At over 3,000,000 acres, Death Valley is also the largest National Park south of Alaska. Visitor Rating (write your own review below) ILNP Rating […]
Old Spanish Trail
Old Spanish National Historic Trail runs through six states, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah. The National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management jointly protect sites of the Old Spanish Trail, a multi-branched trail which joined New Mexico and California via pack mule trains in the mid-1800s. Visitor Rating (write your own […]
Pinnacles
Pinnacles National Park, California, is located just east of US 101 about 70 miles southeast of San Jose, CA. It is home to large formations of ancient volcanic spires in a very out-of-place setting among the rolling golden hills of central California. While it’s one of the oldest National Park lands, having been declared a […]
Yosemite
Yosemite, California, is the king of all National Parks. Although it was declared a National Park October 1st, 1890, after Yellowstone and Sequoia, Yosemite is the Park that started it all. It was here, amidst the spectacular beauty of “the valley” that John Muir convinced the US government to set aside some of its most […]
Redwood
Redwood National Park, California, was actually a latecomer to this area. Founded October 2nd, 1968, it joined three California State Parks in protecting some key groves of redwood trees, the tallest in the world, that grow only along a narrow strip of the California and Oregon coasts. Today, the area is jointly managed by the […]
Sequoia and Kings Canyon
Sequoia National Park, the second oldest Park next to Yellowstone, was established in 1890 to protect the Giant Sequoia tree species found only in this area of the world. The Giant Sequoia is the largest of all living organisms, but their existence was threatened by logging before the Park was created. Kings Canyon National Park, […]