National Parks

Coast redwoods grow to over 350 feet and live for two thousand years, and neither of those numbers means anything until you are standing at the base of one looking up and failing to find the top. The scale defeats photography in a way that is genuinely frustrating — there is no vantage point that contains the tree, and no foreground object that conveys the height. You simply have to be there, neck craned, recalibrating.

What surprised me most was the quiet. The canopy absorbs sound the way it absorbs light, and the fog that rolls in off the Pacific — which is what the trees drink, condensing it directly through their needles — flattens everything further. Ninety-five percent of the old growth was logged in the century after 1850. What remains is protected, and walking through it feels less like visiting a park than like being allowed into somewhere that survived on a technicality.

Best visited: May through October, though the fog is part of the experience year-round. Lady Bird Johnson Grove and the Tall Trees Grove are the classic walks; the latter needs a free permit. Bring layers — it is cold under the canopy even in summer.

Joshua Tree is two deserts in one park — the higher Mojave with its iconic Joshua trees (which are not trees but tree-like yuccas, which makes them more interesting), and the lower Colorado Desert of creosote bush and ocotillo. The junction between them is visible as a distinct transition in the landscape, which is the kind of thing you do not notice until you notice it and then cannot unsee.

The park is two hours from Riverside, which means I have been here multiple times in different seasons and lights. The best experience is arriving before sunrise, setting up somewhere near the boulder formations, and watching the light come up over the Mojave. The Joshua trees turn from silhouettes into three-dimensional objects over the course of twenty minutes, and the stars that were visible before dawn give way to a blue that is a specific shade that I have only seen in desert skies.

Best visited: October through April (avoid summer heat above 100°F). Stargazing is exceptional — Dark Sky certified. The Cholla Cactus Garden at sunset is not to be missed.

Pinnacles became a national park only in 2013, upgraded from a monument designation, and it remains one of the least visited parks in California — which means the trails are quieter and the experience of standing among the rock formations without fifty other people in the frame is genuinely possible. The High Peaks Trail circuit (around eight miles) takes you through the most dramatic of the spire formations and, if you are lucky, above the roosting sites of the California Condor.

The talus caves, formed when giant boulders collapsed into gorges, are navigated in near-darkness with a headlamp. The Balconies Cave is the more accessible of the two; the Bear Gulch Cave requires a permit and is seasonally closed to protect nesting condors. The combination of geological drama, wildlife recovery story, and accessible hiking makes Pinnacles one of the most underrated parks in the system.

Best visited: Spring (wildflowers in April) or fall. Avoid summer — temperatures exceed 100°F. Evening is condor watch time; bring binoculars.

Yosemite is the park that started the whole idea. Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant in 1864 — the first time any government in the world had set aside land in perpetuity for public use and preservation. Standing in Yosemite Valley, looking at El Capitan on one side and Half Dome on the other and Yosemite Falls straight ahead, you understand exactly why Lincoln's secretary was willing to interrupt the Civil War to have that document signed.

The valley is crowded, particularly in summer, and the crowds are understandable. Tunnel View — the first sight of the valley as you emerge from the tunnel — produces gasps from people who have seen the photograph a hundred times before arriving. The photograph does not prepare you. Nothing prepares you. The scale is different in person in a way that is very difficult to explain to someone who has not been there, so I will simply say: go.

Best visited: Late spring (May–June, waterfalls full from snowmelt) or fall (September–October, fewer crowds, golden light). Requires a timed entry permit in peak season. Glacier Point at sunset is extraordinary.

Tahoe straddles the California–Nevada line at 6,225 feet, holds enough water to cover the whole of California to a depth of over a foot, and is old enough — around two million years — that the number stops being useful. What you actually notice is the colour. The clarity is extraordinary, and in the shallows near Sand Harbor the water goes through a range of blues and greens that photographs consistently fail to believe.

It is not a national park — the shoreline is a patchwork of state parks, national forest, and private land — but it belongs on this page for the same reason Red Rock does. Emerald Bay from the overlook on the west shore is the postcard, and it earns it. The east shore is quieter, the water is colder than you expect in August, and the drive around the whole lake takes about three hours if you do not stop, which you will.

Best visited: Summer for the water and the hiking, winter for the skiing — the shoulder seasons are the quietest. Sand Harbor and Emerald Bay fill up early in July and August; arrive before nine or plan on parking a long walk away.

Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area is technically not a national park but a BLM conservation area, which means the entrance fee is lower and the crowds are thinner. What it offers is the Mojave Desert in its most dramatic expression — the Calico Hills escarpment, a 3,000-foot-high wall of red and cream Aztec Sandstone, carved by wind and water into formations that the afternoon light turns from pink to deep ochre to almost-purple in the space of an hour.

The 13-mile one-way scenic drive is the easiest access. The hiking trails — Calico Hills, Turtlehead Peak, Pine Creek Canyon — offer longer immersion in the landscape. The Visitor Center has a good geological explanation of how the Jurassic-era sandstone dunes became the formations you see, which makes everything you subsequently look at more interesting.

Best visited: October through April. Sunrise is exceptional — the eastern light hits the west-facing escarpment at the perfect angle. Carry water regardless of temperature; the desert desiccates faster than you think.