California Gems

California is an amazing state with plenty to do. Our minds were reeling as we did research and attempted to narrow down the options. To be honest, whether you take the lush coastal route or the drier path inland, you can’t go wrong. Here are two unexpected, must-see hidden gems of California plus our pro-tips: 

MONO LAKE

• Take Tioga Pass from Yosemite - The pass has lots of fun trails to hike and even more stunning views of Yosemite. 

• Hike to North Dome - Once the trail ends at North Dome, you can keep going down to actually be on top of North Dome. Here you’ll find perfect views of Half Dome and the rest of the valley. If it’s not too windy, this is a great place to rest, refuel or camp for the night. 

• Hike Panum Crater - The Mono Crater chain is the youngest chain of dormant volcanoes in the world! You can either hike the rim or walk right up to the crater to have a look inside. Lava oozed out of the Earth’s core during an eruption just 600 years ago and hardened into the towering spires of obsidian that you’ll see here.

• South Tufa at Mono Lake - Mono Lake is a stunning, other-worldly sight and even more so when you see it up close. Be sure to walk amongst the formations and take in the diversity of the landscape around you. It really does feel like you’re on another planet for a moment. 

• Forest Service Visitor Center - We made a few stops here to refill our water supply, grab informational packets, maps and to properly dispose of trash and recycling. It might sound like a no-brainer to some but it’s so easy to just mindlessly throw out our trash without properly disposing of recyclables. It was nice to not have to save it for long after camping! They’ve also got a nice walk-through exhibit with lots of useful info on the area.
• Mono Lake Committee Information Center & Bookstore - In case you need to pop onto some Wi-fi, shop local crafts and goods or fill up your water supply, this is another good place to go. The staff here is exceptionally friendly and happy to point you in the right directions for some great exploring.
• Jeffrey Pines - There is lots of free camping in this area and lots and lots of forest service roads to explore. We even camped close to Panum Crater off of nearby a dirt road, which was a short drive to Mono Lake. Best of all, we found that both of us had AT&T/Verizon LTE in our camping spot so working from here was no problem.

• Mono Market - Before you head out to explore and camp, this is a great little market to stock up on groceries, toiletries and other essentials. 
• Mono Cone - Stop here for burgers, fries and ice cream after doing any one of the numerous hikes in the area. 
• Benton - We stopped in this tiny, mining town for gas but quickly passed through. You’ll see Benton Inn/Benton Hot Springs as you drive through. Don’t stop. We stopped in to ask the office about their day-use rates and learned that they only offer day-use rates during off-season since they’re booked solid so often. Judging by our interaction, we weren’t wanted there anyway. There are far better places to get your fill of hot springs. 

• Mammoth Lakes - Heading South/Southwest on Benton Crossing Road you’ll find lots of open road, windy dirt road off-chutes and stunning views of mountains to explore! After making our way through the curvy coastal roads of Big Sur, this was a dream come true. This whole area is also brimming with geological activity. 

THE LOST COAST (SINKYONE)

• The drive down can get kind of gnarly depending on the time of year so be warned - really narrow and curvy dirt road leading to the Sinkyone area.
• Take the road until you see the beach and cliffs, freak out a little bit and then keep making your way down the dirt road. 
• There are lots of "free" camping spots here. I say "free" because we think you're actually supposed to pay, seeing as it's a state park, but no one ever came around when we were there. There are some spots along a dirt road in the trees and others that are more open in the grassy area before the beach. There are also spots on the beach where we saw people tent camping. We got there on a Wednesday in the early afternoon and camped more out in the open. Word of caution: it gets really windy there with the beach right in front of you, which is less than stellar. 

• You can get mussels here! Just be sure you don’t pick them during the quarantine months like we did. The quarantine is from June until October because certain toxic species of algae bloom and mussels eat the highest concentration of these types of algae. You could get very sick and potentially die, but we got lucky and just ended up with delicious mussels. 

• There aren’t really any facilities here except for pit toilets. No light pollution so lots of awesome star gazing.
• Hike the trail to see the candelabra redwoods. They are super cool to look at and you can find blackberries on this hike! 

What else? 

There’s a creek to bathe in. It's freezing but it’s do-able - make sure to use biodegradable soap! We loved The Lost Coast because it was a great place to get away from crowds, pavement, light pollution and cell service to just be together.  It extends quite a ways, which we didn’t get to explore but we’d love to in the future. We took the road about 10 miles further down and it was just very wooded areas, lots of mosquitos, and no views of the beach really so we went back to enjoy the waves. Still don’t know if there was anything else down that road.  Maybe next time? 

 Comment below if there’s anything else you need to know before you go. We’d love to hear from you!