Uncrowded National Parks

Hiking Adventures in California's less-visited National Parklands, where you're sure to see many more trees than people. Learn more about four of The Trailmaster's favorite national parks off the beaten track.

Other states have national parks with tall trees, high peaks, deep canyons, long seashores and vast deserts, but only California can claim all these landscapes within its boundaries. Some of these grand landscapes--Yosemite, Death Valley and Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks--aren't exactly a well-kept secret to visitors from across the nation and around the world.

California's Division of Tourism charts visitation to national parks along with airports, hotel occupancy and other attractions such as Disneyland and Universal Studios. Yosemite is California's most-visited park with four million visitors a year, and many other parks count millions of visitors or "visitor days," per year.

Fortunately for we hikers, other, comparatively unknown national treasures offer all of the spectacular beauty of the well-known parks without the crowds. Do remember that all parks in all locations attract far fewer visitors during the week than on weekends and holidays. Also, there are fewer campsites and lodging opportunities near California's smaller and more obscure national parks.

Here are some of my favorite parks that have great hiking and few visitors. Enjoy!

Redwood National & State Parks
One of my favorite times to visit the redwoods is in late spring when the rains (usually) stop. June, in the form of rhododendrons is busting out all over, pink and conspicuous beneath the tall trees.

When I hike the redwoods I like to contemplate the tall trees of course (the park is home to the world's tallest tree), and also enjoy all the little things as well. California huckleberry, azalea, mosses, lichen and five-fingered ferns are everywhere, springing out of logs and stumps in a wild and dazzling profusion that I had previously associated only with the Amazon.

The namesake redwoods are obviously what draw Americans to this national park, but often it is the region's spectacular coast that prompts a return visit. Dramatic bluffs, hidden coves, tidepools and wilderness beaches are linked by a 40-mile length of the California Coastal Trail. The trail, one of the most scenic stretches of pathway on the West Coast, offers splendid day hiking and backpacking opportunities.

The Trailmaster's Favorite Trails:
To Fern Canyon and Gold Bluffs Beach in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park; Skunk Cabbage Creek; the Coastal Trail from Lagoon Creek to Hidden Beach and Requa Overlook; Tall Trees Grove and Lady Bird Johnson Grove.

For more information:
Redwood Information Center, (707) 464-6101

Read All About it:
Day Hiker's Guide to California's National Parks by John McKinney

Lassen National Park
Lassen National Park's location, 250 miles north of San Francisco, in a remote, sparsely populated region of northeastern California contributes to its relatively obscure image. It's not unknown to scientists, however, who come from all over the world to examine the cinder cones and steaming hydrothermal areas.

The bizarre lava-scape--a mini-Yellowstone of roaring fumaroles, bubbling mudpots and hissing vents--located in the southern part of the park is, for the most part, easy to reach by auto and short trails. Park service interpretive efforts in the thermal areas are excellent.

The park's eastern sector is enchanting in an altogether different way. A chain of lakes extends from Butte Lake in the north to Juniper Lake in the south. Forests of pine and fir and wildflower-sprinkled meadows beckon the backcountry adventurer.

With 150 miles of trail, Lassen is very much a hiker's park. The national park, located where the Cascade Range approaches the High Sierra, shares flora and wildlife common to both mountain ranges. Interpretive paths introduce strangers to a strange land of lava while forest trails, lake trails and a 17-mile length of Pacific Crest Trail explore surrounding wildland.

The Trailmaster's Favorite Trails:
To Bumpass Hell, Lassen Peak, Kings Creek Falls, Cinder Cone, Grassy Swale, and to many of Lassen's lovely lakes including Terrace, Shadow and Cliff.

For more information:
Lassen Volcanic National Park, (530) 595-4444.

Read All About it:
Day Hiker's Guide to California's National Parks by John McKinney

Channel Islands National Park
Congress, in establishing Channel Islands National Park, did not intend it as a vacation spot for the comfort-loving, but rather as a preserve for what some scientists have called the "American Galapagos." Top priority was given to the protection of sea lions and seals, endemic plants like the Santa Cruz pine, rich archaeological digs, and what may be the final resting place of Portuguese navigator Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who explored the California coast for the Spanish crown in the sixteenth century.

Would-be adventurers enjoy the visitors center in Ventura Harbor as an exciting sneak preview of the splendid park out there in the Pacific, 12 to 60 miles away, a series of blue-tinged mountains floating on the horizon. The visitors center not only has island history and ecology exhibits, but provides up to the minute boat transportation information.

The islands' even sea-tempered climate has preserved plants that either were altered through evolution on the mainland, or perished altogether at man's hand. What you see on the islands is Southern California of a millennium ago.

Because of the fragile islands ecology, hiking on the islands is more regulated than it is in most places. You must always stay on the trail, and on some islands be accompanied by a national park ranger or Nature Conservancy employee.

The Trailmaster's Favorite Trails:
All five national park islands have good hiking. Anacapa and Santa Cruz have the most frequent boat service. If you can make arrangements to visit Santa Rosa, San Miguel or Santa Barbara isles, you'll certainly have accomplished "getting away from it all".

For more information:
Channel Islands National Park, (805) 658-5730

Read All About it:
Day Hiker's Guide to California's National Parks by John McKinney

Mojave National Preserve
To many travelers, the East Mojave is that vast, bleak, interminable stretch of desert to be crossed as quickly as possible while driving Interstate 15 from Barstow to Las Vegas. Few realize that I-15 is the northern boundary of what desert rats have long called "the Crown Jewel of the California Desert," and what is now called Mojave National Preserve. Some 17 million people live less than a four-hour's drive from the preserve but few city dwellers can locate this desert land on the map, and even fewer visit.

Although virtually unknown, Mojave National Preserve is quite accessible; it's bounded north and south by two major Interstates, I-15 and I-40, and on the east by U.S. Highway 95. Just south of I-40 is one of the longest remaining stretches of old Route 66. Still, the area bounded by these three highways has long been dubbed "The Lonesome Triangle" and will probably keep this nickname for many years to come.

Mojave's 1.6. million acres include such wonders as canyons sculpted by the Mojave River, the vast caves of Mitchell Caverns, and the world's largest Joshua tree forest. Mojave National Preserve offers the chance to relive history by hiking traditional paths to Fort Piute and Hole-in-the-Wall and by driving the old Mojave Road and fabled Route 66. In the new preserve is a wonderful concentration of mining history, back roads and footpaths, tabletop mesas, cinder cones, and a dozen mountain ranges. This diversity, everything that makes a desert a desert, draws us to experience its silent places. It's a call of the wild that can't be heard, only felt and experienced.

The Trailmaster's Favorite Trails:
To Kelso Dunes, Cima Dome, Hole-in-the-Wall, Caruthers Canyon and Fort Paiute.

For more information:
Mojave National Preserve (760) 255-8801; (760) 733-4040

Read all about it:
Mojave National Preserve: A Visitors Guide by Cheri Rae and John McKinney