The Badger Hills Trail Head at Fort Ord National Monument is a gateway to an place where you'll…read morefind many different types of animals and plants, with some stunning views to be enjoyed. The area is steeped in history, and those who appreciate such things should make a point of visiting. Tip: If your idea of visiting nature requires the kind of crowds and congestion typically found at Yosemite, then this place won't be your cup of tea. That said, if you appreciate quiet, natural beauty with only small crowds to content with, then this is your kind o place! Within the National Monument area, there are several different trails available; you can find something that's short, long, easy, strenuous, or some combination of the aforementioned to suit your personal preference :-) This is a great place for both hiking and biking riding - I suggest you plan a visit to enjoy the natural beauty, and to learn a bit about a place that was once a key training location for the US military.

Saved my mental health during Covid. The goats who traipse through the upper part, accompanied by…read moredogs and shepards, make it an otherworldly experience, especially at dusk.

The Soledad Mission is a beautiful place to stop and explore CA history. I especially enjoyed the…read moregardens and old trees. The ruins in the back were fascinating. My only suggestion is that they clean the fountain and add water plants so that the koi fish can survive. The Santa Barbara Mission did that with their koi fountain and it looks beautiful & healthy.

I really enjoyed my visit Mission Soledad. Although this mission is much smaller than many of the…read moreother missions in California, there is still plenty of beauty to see along your visit. I also wanted to mention that the two women that worked the gift shop works extremely welcoming and treated my wife and I and our son like family. The view surrounding the mission was also breathtaking hills and mountains of luscious California farmland. It definitely made me proud of being born and raised right here in the central Valley of California.

Fantastic and knowledgable docents! Friendly gal at the gate! Offered our kids scavenger hunts -…read morewhat a treat! 10/10 Highly recommend.

I didn't know that I loved lighthouses until I had the tour of the Point Pinos Lighthouse in…read morePacific Grove. Now I am drawn to lighthouses for their beauty, their history, and their unique mystique. The docents at Point Pinos Lighthouse were extremely knowledgeable and friendly. The grounds are impeccable, and the exhibits within the lighthouse are a slice of living history. The setting is stunning, right at Asilomar Beach. You'll want to leave time to walk along the water after you explore the lighthouse. Even if you are not into history or the military or lighthouses, you should definitely drop in to visit this space. You will walk away having digested a bit of unique beauty. Check the hours online -- they are very specific and limited, and it's easy to get shut out. Many people don't know that women often worked the lighthouses back in older times. This is just one fact that stayed with me after my visit. A candle on the water helps lost sailors find their way home.

I love this bridge. From the classic arch to the concrete columns in perfect symmetry that bridges…read moreHighway 1, which straddles the cliffside where the Pacific meets Central California. Whether shrouded in fog or on a crystal-clear day, the view still captures people's hearts with awe and amazement. It was completed in 1932 and soars 260 feet above the coastline floor. Now in order to view this magnificent engineering marvel with one of nature's most spectacular backdrops, one has to stop, get out of the vehicle, and take the time to absorb what's around you. If just driving across, you can't see the good angles, and you'll be out of view within seconds. Because this is a narrow highway on a cliffside, there simply is not a lot of room to park and gaze for the amount of people this spot attracts. I passed by on my way to check into my campsite on a Sunday afternoon and it was packed to where standstill traffic occured. People were literally waiting for a parking spot to open up, so I had to hop on the opposing side of traffic for a bit to get past the congestion. I came back Monday morning around 8 am and I was the only person there. So timing is of essence here. There are a few viewing spots. 2 from the front (North and South ends) and one from the back. All are different angles with their own unique perspective. The one from the front on the North end is the most popular and have the most spots to park and view. And that viewing spot from that corner actually has a trail created by people that go down the cliffside about a 1/3 of the way down surprisingly. And the views changes pretty dramatically the further you go down. But you have to be very bold and somewhat athletic to go down that far. There are no barricades or safety measures so one slip could be an irreversible accident. I went down so far that on the way back up there were spots where you have to use all your limbs to scale back up, can't just simply walk back. I wouldn't have attempted this if there were dozens of people I had to navigate around. But on a quiet morning without another soul there, it was extremely peaceful filled with veneration and awe. I'll include a part of a poem by Robinson Jeffers who settled in this area in the middle part of the 20th century, and fell in love with the environment here. I totally get it. "I gazing at the boundaries of granite and spray, the established sea-marks felt behind me. Mountain and plain, the immense breadth of the continent before me and the mass and doubled stretch of water."

An architectural marvel and one of the most photographed bridges in California…read more Spans a deep, rugged canyon with breathtaking canyon-to-ocean perspectives. this iconic concrete arch bridge is the definitive landmark of Highway 1. Best Viewpoints: Pull off into the designated parking areas on the north side of the bridge just before crossing to get the classic postcard shot framing the bridge against the coastline.

Carmel Mission Basilica (formal name 'San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo') is one of six minor…read morebasilicas in the state of California (five being former Spanish missions). It is the oldest one, founded in 1770, and elevated to basilica status by Pope John XXIII in 1960. My wife, her mom, and I visited it during a late Sunday afternoon during our first day in Carmel, and found it to be a great, worthwhile experience, especially if one is Roman Catholic. The basilica is still a working parish, so parking during non-mass hours was easy to find. A ticket booth was set-up at the visitor entrance, with cost of $15 per adult ($13 for senior). There is an adjacent gift shop that doesn't require admission and sells all the various religious items that one would expect from a religious tourist attraction. We ended up spending about 90 minutes here (there is a lot of information here, along with a lot to see). -- Founding priest was Junipero Serra ("Apostle of California"). He was canonized by Pope Francis in 2015, and his shrine/remains are interned here. -- Only U.S. church visited by a pontiff during a papal visit: Pope John Paul II in 1987. He paid homage to Father Serra, and laid flowers at the tomb. This visit is clearly commemorated. -- the Munras Family Heritage Museum is worth going to, to see a short movie about the prominent Monterey family, along with early California artifacts from the family. -- the Nativity scene was one of the most intricate -- the large courtyard is a good place to stop and admire the architecture of a California Spanish mission, along with a thick trunk Cork Oak tree By the time we were leaving, the ticket office had closed (last call is at 16:30, to allow everyone to have enough time before official close at 18:00).

So grateful to been able to attend Sunday Mass. Basilica is so beautiful and it has so much…read morehistory and also they have free museum and a small shop. Sunday mass is full but the have lots of extra chairs in the back outside the church. Parking could be crowded so get there early.

Pretty sweet stairs that runs a long from a residential area up a hill top…read moreIts not that long but its still nice to be able to see the hills ranges sunsets and the tops of the dense housing

Excellent place to get a workout! If you like walking stats, it has 250 of' em spread over two…read moresections. Try running those 5 times! If you prefer walking on a hill, they have a bigger looping sidewalk that goes adding both sides of the stairs. Several places to stop and do burpees, pushups, squats, whatever. And a really nice view of south San Jose. No water fountains so bring water. In the past, not so much lately, residents in the area get mad at you for making too much noise (even if you're not) or parking near their driveways (even though you're not in their space). Touchy, touchy resident!

I've visited most of the 21 Spanish missions in California, as well as missions in Arizona and…read moreMexico. I've even written a book about the California Missions (The California Mission Guide). Mission San Juan Bautista is my favorite mission to visit! It was the 15th mission in California, and was founded in 1797. The mission itself is mid-sized, and it is well preserved; it is still an active Catholic church. (The climactic scene in Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film masterpiece, Vertigo, was filmed at Mission San Juan Bautista. There is now a popular coffee shop in town called Vertigo, in honor of the film.) What makes this mission my favorite is the surrounding town. The slogan of San Juan Bautista is "The City of History," and it's well-deserved. Across the street from the mission you'll find the Castro-Breen adobe, built in 1836, and the Plaza Hotel, built in 1856. You can also visit the Plaza stable, built around 1870, which features a small collection of buggies and wagons. The town's original main street is just a couple of blocks from the mission. There is a self-guided walking tour that features almost 50 historic sites from the 1800's. There also restaurants, shops and antique galleries. Plan on spending a full day in San Juan Bautista!

If you are a school or group learning about California missions history and interested in a tour of…read morethis mission, I highly suggest skipping the mission tour, and instead go directly to San Juan Bautista State Park, which is right next door. The land is literally connected to the mission and they offer wonderful programs about mission life. Benito is in charge at the Mission, and he screamed and yelled at our school group. And from what I learned, we were not the first. He is arrogant, hostile, aggressive, and incapable of keeping accurate schedules he makes himself. Our group consisted of women and children, almost entirely non-white. I spoke to Benito TWICE in advance of the field trip and scheduled the date and time directly with him. When I went to check in and pay before the start of our field trip, the ladies at the front called Benito, because he was somewhere else on the mission grounds on lunch break. He literally SCREAMED into the phone so loud, I could clearly understand. They may not have realized based on my race that I understood their Spanish, but I did. He kept screaming they don't set field trips at 1, but he did. We spoke in detail, and he set the tour at 1, knowing we were at the State Park Mission Life Program in the morning. The ladies were clearly intimidated by him, and kept trying to tell him that he spoke with me directly to set this up. He was angry about coming back from lunch. When he finally came, he stalked up to our group--of all women and children, almost entirely non-white--and started screaming at us about how they don't do field trips at 1. I spoke clearly and calmly to remind him that we had spoken and set this date and time. He looked at me in disgust, completely ignored and blew past me, then started addressing the group as "boys and girls." He addressed them like kindergarteners in 1950 every other sentence. His behavior was a disgrace to actually kind people-of-faith, and I'm guessing this is not the kind of legacy the church wishes to continue--MEN IN POWER SCREAMING DOWN AT WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF COLOR. It did, however, make for a very negative and real connection to actual missions history--clearly not something we were expecting our children would be exposed to on a school tour.