Are you coming to California? Search here for the best deals in Flights, Hotels, Vacation rentals, & Cars!

Mountains

One of the most attractive reasons for traveling to California is for its geography which comprises rivers, beaches, valleys and stunning mountains. For hikers and real lovers of nature, the mountains in California are wonderful, and for people that just appreciate aesthetic beauty, there is nothing more beautiful than the daunting grace of California’s many mountain peaks. Here we will give a few examples of mountains which you will find in California.

Let’s start with the famous Mount Whitney, the highest mountain peak in the contiguous United States. It has an elevation of 14,505 feet and belongs to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Its western slope is found in Sequoia National Park and its peak is where the southern part of the John Muir Trail ends. Badwater in Death Valley, the lowest point of elevation within the contiguous United States is found just 76 miles from Mount Whitney. Its name was created to pay homage to Josiah Whitney, the State Geologist of California at the time.

Mount Shasta is part of the Cascade Mountain range and is the fifth highest peak in the state. The mountain is physically unconnected to other mountains which adds to its beauty as it looms up out of the lower land which surrounds it. The mountain type is stratovolcano and it seems to erupt, on average, every six hundred years, the last time it erupted being two hundred years ago. Native Americans in the area believe that the mountain is inhabited by the spirit chief ‘Skell’ who came down from Heaven to the peak of the mountain.

San Jacinto Peak is the highest peak in the San Jacinto Mountain range. It is found within the state park of the same name and is a very popular destination for hikers and climbers. It has various hazards such as high altitude, wild animals and steep rock faces, which cause injuries and sometimes deaths amongst the adventurous outdoor lovers. The mountain was once inhabited by a man from central Europe called Zubi who resided in a stone hut until the 1970s.

The wonderfully named Mount Diablo is located in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area and is the namesake of the Mount Diablo State Park of more or less 20,000 acres. Its name seems to come from the escape of Native Americans from the Spaniards in 1805 and their disappearance into the mountain, hence the Spaniards called the mountain ‘Monte del Diablo’, thinking that it was the devil’s work. Wonderful species of wildlife are seen to reside on the mountain, including coyote, black-tailed deer, grey foxes and bobcat.