California Official Visitor's Guide 2009 - (Page 10) welcome to california! How to use your 2009 Visitor’s Guide and the resources at www.visitcalifornia.com Consider the 2009 California Visitor’s Guide as a handy, take-along, and exclusive insider’s guide to the best the Golden State has to offer. The guide, which includes the Official State Map, is designed to introduce you to California’s many destinations and attractions, and to help you plan your itinerary. CALIFORNIA 2009 OFFICIAL STATE VISITOR’S GUIDE AND TRAVEL PLA OREGON CALIFORNIA Arcata SHASTA CASCADE Anderson NORTH COAST Auburn N GOLD COUNTRY Santa Rosa San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA EV HIGH SIERRA Merced CENTRAL VALLEY INLAND EMPIRE DESERTS CENTRAL COAST SUNSET AT THE BEACH IN THE IDYLLIC “OC” PAGE 32 Pismo Beach Barstow Oxnard Santa Ana LOS ANGELES COUNTY ORANGE COUNTY Oceanside MEXICO SAN DIEGO COUNTY visitcalifornia.co m 2009 OFFICIAL STATE 00_VG9_C1_logo_v14.indd 00_VG9_C1_logo_v14.indd 1 California lifestyle AND TRAVEL PLANN ER 12/1/08 5:21:10 PM LIVE THE VISITOR’S GUIDE California Welcome CentersSM Simplify your travel plans and enhance your visit to California with assistance and support from the experts at any one of the 13 convenient California Welcome Centers located throughout the Golden State, or go to visitCWC.com. SM Live like a Californian! The articles in the front of the guide spotlight the Golden State’s top attractions and activities. Look for special keywords (marked with a ) and enter them in the search box at www.visitcalifornia.com for more information and related features about the topic. The main guide is divided into 12 tourism regions, with each chapter offering “must sees,” events and festivals, and suggested itineraries with maps (Trip Ideas) for a particular region. Main attractions, parks, and activities are listed by city, and each chapter contains a handy lodging chart. 2009 CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL STATE MAP discover On a clear day perched atop Fonts Point overlooking the Borrego Badlands in AnzaBorrego Desert State Park, you can gaze over miles of otherworldly landscape to Mexico. 12 n certain full-moon nights, when the sky is clear and the moon throws off enough light, Yosemite Falls, and the gauzy mists raised by its cascading thunder, produce a fairy-tale moment almost beyond this world’s belief. The moon’s rays reflect off the mist and create a “moonbow”—red, orange, yellow, green, blue—a shimmering brushstroke across the plummeting falls. And should you miss it—like most beauties, the moonbow is a fickle thing—that’s okay; California offers more natural alternatives than a Grateful Dead convention. Our vast and varied landscape is home to hushed redwoods, wild beaches, ragged mountain ranges that scrape the sky, belching sulfur pots, tumbling rivers, and immense desert spreads: Mt. Whitney, Lassen Peak, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Sequoia National Forest, Point Reyes National Seashore, Big Sur, the American River, Lake Tahoe. Frankly, it’s enough to give Ansel Adams a serious neck-cricking. Happily, the thrill of discovery comes in as many forms as the landscape itself. Stargazing in deserts, beneath more stars O than sky. Kayaking on a nighttime ocean, the waves winking silver beneath a full moon. Casting for trout shadows beside a sparkling stream. Sighting whales from a high bluff. Watching a child pick a wildflower and place it in your hand. If it were only about the landscape, you could just look at pictures. We touch the landscape and the landscape touches us, an equation both simple and indefinably complex. California was once entirely wild. Today, cities and freeways share the countryside. They make the most noise, but they still do not share equal billing. Lose their bustle, and you’ll find California still harbors untamed places. Thankfully, 25 percent of California is protected in pristine parks [ open space] and other public open space and wilderness, so nature’s footprint remains in a landscape so diverse that it’s nearly beyond our scope. Such grand spectacle requires an equally outsized response. The state is too varied to fully explore in a single trip. All you can do is take your cue from Yosemite Falls, and throw yourself with abandon into the journey. KEN McALPINE Enter keyword in Search box at visitcalifornia.com visitcalifornia.com VG9_012-013_D_Op_t.indd 12-13 12/1/08 4:13:49 PM los angeles county CENTRAL VALLEY REGION DESERTS REGION http://www.visitcalifornia.com http://www.visitCWC.com http://www.visitcalifornia.com http://www.visitcalifornia.com http://www.visitcalifornia.com http://www.visitcalifornia.com http://www.visitcalifornia.com
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