Apple Hill orchards, ranked: the 10 best farms to visit this October
The 10 best Apple Hill orchards in Camino and Placerville, ranked: cider doughnuts, u-pick, pie, hard cider, and how to beat the Carson Road crawl in October.
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Lodi wineries, ranked: the 10 best tasting rooms in the 209
Lodi wineries, ranked by a local: the 10 tasting rooms worth your harvest-season Saturday, from old-vine zinfandel to an all-white-wine barn, plus how to plan the day.
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Route 66 in California at 100: Needles to the Santa Monica Pier
Route 66 in California turns 100 on November 11. Here’s the road from Needles to Santa Monica: what’s still standing, what’s open, what’s closed, and how to drive it this fall.
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Eastern Sierra fall colors: the 7 best drives, ranked
The best of the Eastern Sierra fall colors is Bishop Creek Canyon, and it isn’t especially close. Highway 168 climbs out of Bishop into three forks of the same canyon, and each fork ends at a lake ringed with aspen. Nothing else on 395 gives you that much color in one drive. Below are the…
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The 6 best apple orchards in Oak Glen, ranked
The best apple orchards in Oak Glen for 2026, ranked: where you can still pick your own, where it’s pre-picked, and how to beat the loop traffic.
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The 6 best pumpkin patches in Half Moon Bay, ranked
Farmer John’s, Arata’s, Andreotti, Bob’s, Lemos, and Pastorino, ranked by a local, with 2026 dates for the weigh-off and festival and how to dodge the Highway 92 backup.
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The 7 best small towns in Gold Country, ranked
Highway 49 is numbered for the forty-niners, and it strings together the old mining camps of the Sierra foothills like beads on a wire. Some of those camps turned into real towns. Some turned into parking lots with a plaque. The best small towns in Gold Country are the ones that are still lived in:…
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The 5 best hot springs in the Eastern Sierra, ranked
Five real hot springs between Bridgeport and Bishop, ranked by what actually matters: the drive, the view, and whether you have to share the pool.
