5 California state parks nobody talks about
Everyone can name four. There are about 280.
Lindsey Marino
Orange County native, and a licensed California real estate agent. What I do
CA DRE 02055819
August 11, 2026
California has around 280 state parks and most people can name four of them. The rest are not lesser. They are further from a freeway exit, or missing a famous photograph, or both.
These five are worth the drive. One of them is close enough to do on a Saturday, and one has a closure worth checking before you commit to the trip.
05
Montaña de Oro State Park
San Luis Obispo County
Seven miles of coastline with bluffs, tidepools and almost none of the crowd that gathers an hour south.
The name refers to the wildflowers that turn the hillsides yellow in spring. Bluff Trail is the one to do, flat and right along the edge, and Spooner's Cove at the north end is where most people stop without realising the better walking starts past it.
About four hours from Orange County. Free to enter, which is unusual for a coastal park this size.
04
Grover Hot Springs State Park
Alpine County, near Markleeville
Natural mineral springs at 5,900 feet in a glacial valley on the eastern side of the Sierra.
The springs are the reason to go, and the meadow setting at that elevation is genuinely beautiful in its own right. The park sits about an hour southeast of Lake Tahoe, which makes it an easy add to a trip you were already taking.
Check before you go. As of August 2026 the pool complex is listed as closed on the state parks website. Day use is open sunrise to sunset. The park was also damaged by the Tamarack Fire, so confirm current conditions rather than assuming.
03
Castle Crags State Park
Shasta County
Granite spires rising six thousand feet, right off the 5 north of Redding, and most people drive straight past them.
The crags are visible from the freeway, which somehow makes people less likely to stop rather than more. The Crags Trail climbs toward the base of them and is genuinely steep, but you do not have to do the whole thing to get the view. On a clear day Mount Shasta sits behind you the entire way up.
Directly accessible from Interstate 5, which makes it the easiest stop on this list if you are already driving north.
02
Limekiln State Park
Monterey County, southern Big Sur
Redwoods, a waterfall and four nineteenth century lime kilns, packed into a small park most Big Sur traffic misses.
It is small, and that is the appeal. Three short trails: one to the falls, one to the kilns, one through the redwoods, and you can do all three in a morning. The kilns themselves are the strange part, huge stone furnaces sitting in the forest, left from the 1880s lime industry.
Highway 1 through Big Sur closes for slides more often than people expect. Check Caltrans road conditions before committing to the drive.
01
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
San Diego County
The largest state park in California, and the closest one on this list to Orange County by a wide margin.
Six hundred thousand acres of desert, slot canyons, palm oases and metal sculptures scattered across the valley floor. In a good wildflower year the bloom draws crowds, and the rest of the year you can drive for an hour and see almost nobody. Borrego Palm Canyon is the walk to do first.
Roughly two and a half hours from Orange County. Go in the cooler months. Summer temperatures are dangerous, and several campgrounds and Coyote Canyon close from June through September for exactly that reason.
Lindsey Marino
Orange County native, and a licensed California real estate agent. What I do
CA DRE 02055819