Top 10 Places to Visit in California in 2020 Finding beauty and excitement in California has never been difficult. But these days, seeking out solitude and fresh experiences means going the extra mile. Here are 10 destinations to get you there.

If there’s one thing you can count on in the new year, it’s this: The rest of the world will kick California when she’s down. “It’s the end of California as we know it,” The New York Times proclaimed as the fires raged and PG&E left us in darkness. “California is becoming unlivable,” The Atlantic chimed in, unhelpfully. “Is California a failed state?” scuzzier corners of the conservative blogosphere asked gleefully. Read more

Windsor If you’re going to Wine Country, you’re probably thinking Napa, Healdsburg, Yountville, right? But good ol’ Windsor, which sits 10 miles north of Santa Rosa and is decidedly not on the chartered limo-tasting tour, is worth a visit. Hear us out. What the town lacks in historic charm and Michelin stars, it makes up for with the kind of vibrancy that isn’t easy to find in Wine Country. The dozen-odd artisanal breweries, distilleries and wineries that make up the new Windsor Beverage District — from Tilted Shed Ciderworks, which produces lusted-after cider, to Sonoma Brothers Distilling, a small batch distillery founded twins who used to work for Santa Rosa’s police and fire departments — have been drawing steady crowds for several years. But the district really took off in late 2018, when the world-famous Russian River Brewing Co. opened a mammoth $50 million facility nearby and cemented Windsor’s status as the region’s hottest new drink destination. “Windsor has been under the radar for a while, but it’s coming up,” says Tom Birdsall, who crushes his grapes from his Black Kite Cellars in the beverage district. It’s not just about the booze. Windsor has a charming, grassy town square surrounded by faux Victorian restaurants and shops, capped off with a small-town bookstore. The quant, family friendly vibe here is why Birdsall and other investors are big on Windsor’s future. He invested in a new hotel, complete with rooftop bar, charming bistro and retail space, slated to open soon. Visit now, so 20 years from now you can tell folks, “I remember what Windsor was like in the olden days, before it was full-time fancy.” More on Russian River Brewing Company's new brewery in Windsor.

Pinnacles National Park Last year, a little over 4 million people visited Yosemite National Park. A smidge under 3 million flooded Joshua Tree. Remote Death Valley saw a record 1.7 million souls. Pinnacles National Park, east of Soledad? Just 222,142 visitors. Established in 2013, Pinnacles is America’s newest and California’s least-visited national park. It is a geologic wonderland an hour and a half south of San Jose and just 10 miles off Hwy 101 – and the only park you can reasonably day-trip to from the Bay Area. A trek across the small park will take you down into other worldly caves, across canyons filled with majestic oak and to the top rocky peaks. Blessed with a craggy landscape born from a 23-million-year-old volcanic eruption, the area has some of the best bouldering in the state, rock climbers say. January and February are prime time to see the critically endangered California condor, says Jennifer Westphal, head of the Pinnacles National Park Foundation. Try the park’s eastern campground in the morning, she advises: “If you bring a good pair of binoculars, you’re likely to see them stretch their wings right there before it gets warm.” Chances are, you’ll have the trail all to yourself. More on what you'll see during a visit to Pinnacles.

Salton Sea An early morning opera beside a dying lake. Art installations among ruined pleasure palaces. A drive-in movie screen for a parking lot full of rusted-out junkers. The Salton Sea is mostly a place of death and decay but once a year, for the last five years, an ad hoc collection of artists and local residents has put on the weirdest festival of the year: The Bombay Beach Biennale. Bombay Beach, located 223 feet below sea level in the far southeast of the state, was once a resort town. In the latter half of the 20th century, women in Beehives Jet Ski'd along a shore lined with bungalows and pleasure crafts crowded the docks. But it wasn’t to be. Increasing salinity and toxic agricultural runoff soon made Bombay Beach unlivable. Fish died off, choking the shore with putrid skeletons. Tourists fled. Buildings rotted. Today, a core of perhaps 250 people live in Bombay Beach, a community nearly always referred to as “post-apocalyptic” in media reports. The Bombay Biennale, now in its fifth year, asks the question: What better place for a party? The three-day bash is a celebration of art and music and performance “on the literal edge of western civilization.” Lots of abandoned cars transform into art installations, cellos play across the desiccated sands. One thing the Biennale is not, however, is Burning Man. Planners intentionally don’t announce the date of the event and no tickets are sold for cash. So how do you get into the most interesting desert festival in America? Keep an eye on the Biennale’s website for dates — or volunteer to help out at the event to ensure you get an invitation. More on the Bombay Beach Biennale event.

Harbin Springs There’s always been something special about Harbin Hot Springs. Maybe it was the way the New Age retreat was nestled into the forest, maybe it was the widespread nudity, but rural Harbin, nestled deep in Lake county, drew crowds from around the world. When the 2015 Valley Fire — it feels like so many fires ago — tore through the region, Harbin was leveled. About 90 miles north of San Francisco, Harbin was one of the oldest hot springs in California. It had seen many fires over its decades, but nothing like this one. The Valley Fire burned every structure on the 1,700-acre property and left the renowned wellness center looking uncomfortably like Italy's Pompeii. Early last year, after three years of reconstruction, Harbin opened up to the public. For devotees, it was a momentous occasion. Harbin, it should be noted, is not your standard hot spring. First off, it is very clothing optional. Then there are its eight pools, some frigid, some up to 112 degrees. Guests take part in “watsu,” a deeply relaxing aquatic therapy that takes them slowly through the different waters. For many it is almost a spiritual effect. “The Harbin Experience’ can be consciousness-altering and deeply transpersonal, with a feeling of unity, and mental and physical calmness,” says the spring’s Chayo Mosqueda. “You can meet a total stranger here and connect on such a deep level that you will consider that stranger a lifelong friend from then on.” More on the revitalization of Harbin Hot Springs.

Santa Monica Mountains California is not lacking in long-distance hikes. There’s the world-famous Pacific Crest Trail, which slacklines the Sierras; the John Muir Trail, a beloved 210-mile segment of the PCT uncontested in its beauty; the Tahoe Rim Trail circling the famed lake, and more. But the state’s most unique “thru-hike” doesn’t begin in a remote corner of the desert or the high Sierras. It starts in the Pacific Palisades area, about 4 miles from downtown Santa Monica’s multi-story Bloomingdales. The Backbone Trail (BBT), completed in 2016, takes hikers from the oppression of urban Los Angeles and across 67 miles of the Santa Monica Mountains, a coyote bush-perfumed escape from civilization that advances from the neighborhoods of Topanga Canyon into wilderness. And although the route was damaged in the 2018 Woolsey Fire, it’s now completely open for business again. There is one thing, however, that sets the trail apart from the state’s other great thru hikes. Although almost all distance hikes necessitate camping along the trail, the backbone trail has only two designated backcountry campsites — and logging all 67 miles in three days isn’t possible for mere mortals. So as they wait for the National Park Service to open more campsites, hikers have found an extremely civilized workaround: Airbnb. Much of the Backbone Trail passes through the tiny towns of the Santa Monica Mountains, where dozens of properties are available for short term rental. When Backpacker magazine completed a hike of the route in 2018, its correspondent cooked hot meals in full kitchens and slept in luxury barn conversions along the route. The result is the most pampered hardcore hike possible — long days filled with coastal canyons and ocean views, followed by easy nights in high-thread count sheets. More on wildlife experiences to explore around Los Angeles.

June Lake A family trip to the slopes is supposed to be a joyous wintertime affair. But after the stress of dressing, packing and hauling an SUV full of kids up the mountain comes the sticker shock: $75-plus for a lift ticket for your seven-year-old who can barely pizza down the mountain. June Mountain, in the eastern Sierras, has the answer. Located near picturesque June Lake, just east of Yosemite, the June Mountain Ski Area is free for kids under 12 — a proposition just about unheard of these days. The resort covers 1,500 acres and its high elevation ensures roughly 250 inches of powder each year. But thanks to the popularity of nearby Mammoth Lakes and Northern California’s affinity for Tahoe resorts, June remains blissfully uncrowded and under the radar. This combination of plentiful snow, relaxed attitudes and a charming ski town should earn June Mountain strong consideration for your next family ski trip. But don’t think “family friendly” means bunny slopes and blue square runs at best. Three years ago, Powder magazine called June Mountain’s backcountry access some of the best in North America: Think acres of deep snow, sans tracks, all to yourself. Plus, the mag notes, June Lake Brewery has an excellent small town après vibe. More on how to prepare for a ski weekend in the Sierra.

Sea Ranch Fifty-five years ago, a group of architects in their 20s and 30s from UC Berkeley got the chance of a lifetime (for an architect, anyway): Dream up a new community that would marry modern design, ecology and environmental stewardship in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Sea Ranch, isolated on the Sonoma Coast, started an architectural revolution. The “Sea Ranch style” can still be seen today, from the return of wood paneling to our lasting appreciation of native plants and living harmoniously with nature. “It was a radical wind from the west coming across the country,” says Buzz Yudell, protégé and partner of Charles Moore, one of Sea Ranch’s founding architects. Although strict building guidelines have kept the Sea Ranch style intact, things aren’t static in California’s best-designed city. “In a way, we’re catching back up culturally to things they were exploring at Sea Ranch,” says Yudell, who has designed homes in the town. Today, thanks to high speed internet access, remote Sea Ranch attracts families that work from home and new residents are incorporating fireproof and low-carbon building materials into new homes. “Younger people are rediscovering the issues” Sea Ranch grappled with, Yudell says. “Which I think makes it all the more relevant 55 years later.” A visit today is a pacifying treat along a remote stretch of California’s beautiful coast, even if you’re not an architecture buff. But if you are, you can rent some of the town’s most famous and historic homes on short-term rental sites. More on exploring the area around Sea Ranch.

Chico Last year was not the easiest for Chico. When the 2018 Camp Fire decimated the nearby communities of Paradise, Magali and Concow, Chico became a refuge. What started as a temporary influx of survivors — a tent city in the Walmart parking lot, hotels at capacity around town — became a 20,000-person population boost. More than a year later, most survivors still call Chico home, but it has not been an easy transition. Mental health and community services have been strained and the city needs more police and firefighters. Housing prices have exploded and the sewer system is struggling. Traffic has been hell. Despite tensions in the community, Chico has been the consummate good neighbor. And now that disaster work is winding down, says Carolyn Denero, the head of Butte County’s tourism arm, the town is ready for tourists again. “Businesses actually want to see visitors,” Denero says, “The city of Chico is open.” Hotels have vacancies again and events that were cancelled last year, like the Annual Nut Festival, are on again, Denero says. The town is an easy place to while away a perfect weekend. Start at lovely Bidwell Park for a bike ride or some fresh water swimming, then lunch downtown (the burger at Nobby’s, please), followed by an afternoon sampling some of the best breweries northern California has to offer. (Denero suggests Secret Trail Brewing’s dog-friendly outdoor patio, but you can’t go wrong with the grand old dame of craft ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing.) Sure the region may be scarred, but as any Californian knows: Out of the ashes of wildfires, wildflowers bloom. More on exploring Chico's massive nature park, Bidwell Park.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Last year, when seas of desert wildflowers bloomed after a particularly wet winter, hordes descended on the small town of Lake Elsinore. A football stadium's worth of instagrammers arrived in search of the #superbloom, shutting down traffic and forcing the city to cut off access to the most popular poppy sites. Fields of flowers were unceremoniously trampled. “This weekend has been unbearable in Lake Elsinore,” the city wrote online. “We know it has been miserable and has caused unnecessary hardships for our entire community.” It added: #poppynightmare. But at Anza-Borrego State Park, experiencing the desert’s efflorescence doesn’t have to be a “#flowergeddon.” The state park has worked with the town of Borrego Springs and the Anza-Borrego Foundation to ensure that the region will be prepared for the next bloom — whether it comes in 2020 or not — with ample supplies for tourists and plans to shepherd visitors along planned routes to protect flowers. “It’s a public service,” says Bri Fordem, executive director of the Anza-Borrego Foundation. “We want to make sure everyone is safe and not degrading the landscape or the natural resources.” Even if the rains don’t produce a “superbloom” this year, Anza-Borrego always sees wildflowers in springtime. Plus, at 600,000 acres, the park is the state’s largest, a desert playground just east of San Diego; it's a place to get off trail or rent an e-bike and connect with the uncrowded, unhipsterfied desert. Even Northern Californians who might be more “tree people,” Fordem says, should experience it. “Give the desert a chance,” she says. “There’s an expansive feeling. You get hooked on it. It grows on you. It seeps into your veins.” More on Anza-Borrego's wildflower superblooms.

Arcata This summer, Arcata and Humboldt County will mark the 30th anniversary of biggest event on the small town’s yearly calendar. The Oyster Festival, held in quaint downtown Arcata, within spitting distance of the sea, is “a celebration of North Coast culture,” organizers say, a paean to the ocean harvest that has sustained Humboldt County for generations. The festival will be delicious, but a question hangs in the air: how much longer can the region rely on the sea? It’s been a rough decade or two for the fisheries industry in far Northern California. The 2019-20 crab season was delayed once again. Red abalone numbers are crashing and the season is on hold until 2021. Local salmon and steelhead runs are on the brink. An invasion of purple sea urchin is marching across the seafloor, annihilating ancient kelp forests. And to make matters worse, studies in 2018 warned that warming waters and climate change could put California’s oysters in peril. It’s enough to make the region’s fishers hang up their goulashes and head to the hills to pick the region’s other cash cow. But Arcata and Humboldt aren’t abandoning their sea heritage yet. Oysters are still a $10 million industry there — 10 million of ‘em are harvested from the county’s shores each year — and residents aren’t about to stop celebrating that. More on how to see Humboldt County in a weekend.