Then we turn inland, gaining 4,000ft in elevation as we climb towards the granite faces and giant sequoias of Yosemite National Park. The route begins in San Francisco and makes its way anti-clockwise, hugging the coastline south through the beach towns of Santa Cruz, Monterey and into the spectacular headlands of Big Sur. The itinerary I’ve put together will take you on an 1,300km loop around the best of Northern California, from its golden sands to its highest peaks. Teddy Roosevelt took one look at Yosemite and turned the idea into law. It was here that John Muir, the legendary environmentalist, dreamt up the concept of wilderness conservation. They found gold, but more than that they found a land of abundance and beauty.
Settlers soon arrived in their thousands, swelling the population by a hundred times in little more than a year. The gold rush started here in 1848 when the first shiny flakes were discovered in a river in the Sacramento Valley, just north of San Francisco. Northern California is exactly what holidays should be about: awe, adventure, plenty of sunshine and excellent food. There is world-class surf, sun-baked beaches and one of the most spectacular drives on the planet, following the rugged cliffs of California’s Pacific Coast Highway.Īnd then there’s San Francisco, which celebrated the 50th anniversary of the “Summer of Love” () this year, and continues to be one of the coolest and most creative cities in the country. The tallest trees on Earth exist only here: 300ft redwoods that crane the neck and humble the soul. There are whales and dolphins and grizzly bears. Waterfalls cascade for thousands of feet and cast rainbows in their mist. Jagged peaks rise up from the Sierra Nevada like enormous stone totems.
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