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California Today: Hidden Gems of California
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Last week, we asked you to tell us about your favorite places in California that are perhaps not widely known but should be.
Here are some excerpts from the responses, organized roughly north to south:
“Cheatham Grove, in Humboldt County — the finest redwood grove in the world. Nobody ever goes there.”
— Cecelia Holland, Fortuna
“I nominate the Bizz Johnson Trail, in Lassen County. One of the first rails to trails projects in the country, and a perennial favorite in that category — 25 miles of very lightly used trail with spectacular scenery.”
— Erik Jefferts, Janesville
“Point Arena — a small town between Mendocino and Bodega Bay. Seems relatively depressed compared to the upscale development at nearby Sea Ranch or Gualala, but the nature around it is beautiful and the people are really sweet.”
— Sally Barros
“Everyone comes to the Napa Valley for the wine. Only a handful of people know about Robert Louis Stevenson State Park. Hiking is wonderful and the first mile, in a beautiful shady forest, ends at a plaque commemorating the site of the cabin where Stevenson honeymooned with his new wife, Franny, in 1880.”
— Kathie Fowler, Napa
“I nominate Pinecrest Lake in Tuolumne County as my treasured place. It feels like a throwback to the ’50s or ’60s. There’s a beach and a snack shack, but also fishing, a great four-mile hike around the lake and beauty everywhere you look.”
— Suzanne Osborn, Sonora
“Port Costa [in the San Francisco Bay Area] is teeny tiny and sits on the edge of the Carquinez Strait waterfront. There are beautiful parks and shorelines right there, but one of the other highlights is the Warehouse Cafe — a quirky, huge bar set inside an old warehouse.”
— Liz Claflin, Oakley
“Palo Alto’s Byxbee Park, and the adjacent Palo Alto and Mountain View shoreline. Right in the middle of Silicon Valley, Byxbee Park is built on landfill. It has recently been re-landscaped, and now offers a great collection of trails. There are simply stunning vistas.”
— Eric Savitz, Palo Alto
“Nelder Grove: This is a grove of giant sequoias not far from Yosemite National Park. It has a one-mile interpretive trail, a stream, Nelder Creek, rudimentary visitor facilities and almost no visitors. The place is magical.”
— Tessa Lucero, Canyon Country
“As a native of Southern California and a longtime Malibu resident, I am especially proud of Adamson House, the extraordinary Spanish Colonial Revival home on Pacific Coast Highway next to the Malibu pier.”
— Kathe Bonann Marshall, Malibu
Other notable mentions: Sierraville, Mineral King Valley, San Marino’s The Huntington and Riverside’s Mission Inn.
California Online
(Please note: We regularly highlight articles on sites that have limited access for nonsubscribers.)
• The extension of a landmark climate bill yielded California’s latest innovation: a Republican case for cap and trade. [CALmatters]
• A wildfire near Yosemite spread to nearly 40 square miles, forcing the evacuation of the town of Mariposa. [Sierra Star]
• Fire inspection lapses, a police scandal and crumbling roads. “There seems no end to Oakland’s government dysfunction.” [Opinion | East Bay Times]
• This animation shows how terrifyingly close an airplane landing in San Francisco came to disaster. [The Mercury News]
• A San Diego doctor claims his injection can save a fetus after a medication abortion has begun. [The New York Times]
• “It’s just dead all the time.” Business has waned at President Trump’s golf course near Los Angeles. [The Washington Post]
• The San Francisco radio station KQED has been hobbled for more than a month by a ransomware attack. [San Francisco Chronicle]
• Betty Dukes died at 67. The Bay Area Walmart greeter accused the retail giant of underpaying women and took her case all the way to Supreme Court. [The New York Times]
• The Lakers’ Lonzo Ball was the unquestioned star of the Las Vegas Summer League. [The New York Times]
• Michael Vick’s explanation for why Colin Kaepernick is still unemployed? Teams have a problem with the hair. [The New York Times]
• Calexit, a new comic book, imagines California having seceded and suffering water and power shortages. [The New York Times]
And Finally ...
“The High Art of Riding Low: Ranflas, Corazón e Inspiración” opened this month at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
In lowriding, started in Southern California after World War II, old school cars are customized with intricate designs and hydraulics that make them wiggle and dance.
Denise Sandoval, the curator of the exhibit, said she wanted to chronicle traditional lowrider cars as well as works of gallery artists who have been inspired by the culture.
“My approach was, ‘How have artists reimagined the lowrider car as object and subject?’” she said.
Among the works are “Gypsy Rose,” by Jesse Valadez, a floral-themed 1964 Chevrolet that has been inducted into the National Historic Vehicle Register, and “El Rey,” by Albert De Alba Sr., a 1963 Chevrolet Impala whose intricate craftsmanship is regarded as one of the finest examples of modern lowrider culture.
Not to be missed is “Gypsy Rose Piñata,” by Justin Favela, a Las Vegas artist. As you may have guessed, it’s a brightly colored piñata car built to scale in the model of “Gypsy Rose.”
The exhibit runs until the summer of 2018.
California Today goes live at 6 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: CAtoday@nytimes.com.
The California Today columnist, Mike McPhate, is a third-generation Californian — born outside Sacramento and raised in San Juan Capistrano. He lives in Los Osos.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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