California is the most populous of the fifty United States. It’s also arguably the most diverse— so diverse that plans to split it into two (or more) states have been proposed (and rejected) over 200 times since statehood in 1850*. The natural wonders of California include coastal views as beautiful as any in the world, mountain ranges, vast deserts, pristine lakes, and a plethora of national parks. California has the lowest point in North America (in Death Valley), 128 kilometers from the highest point in the continental United States (Mount Whitney). And there are numerous man-made attractions, permanent and otherwise.
It’s no exaggeration to say that California offers enough photographic and travel opportunities for several lifetimes— much of which could be wasted negotiating urban traffic and shortened by smog, for which California is also famous. In addition to these travel essays, I took many of the pictures on the Scenery and Fine Art pages in California.
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NORTH COAST 
Rugged Coastline, Redwoods, and Victorian Houses Larger version of picture |
Authentic Historical Reconstruction Larger version of picture |
*Splitting the state into North California and South California is the obvious division, but there have been various other approaches. The most recent one I’m aware of (proposed in early 2009) slices California lengthwise. The inland part of the state is heavily agricultural, and politically and socially conservative. So proponents there feel more connection with the farms and Family Values of the Midwestern Heartland than with the decadent urban “left coast.” And two more conservative Republican Senators would be nice as well. I don’t think this proposal has any more chance of succeeding than the 200-odd previous ones. That characterization of the coast as liberal is also inaccurate. Los Angeles and the extended San Francisco Bay area are indeed heavily liberal, but San Diego has a large conservative population of active and retired military. Orange County, sandwiched between Los Angeles and San Diego, is home to large numbers of Evangelical Protestants and Latino Catholics. It’s one of the most staunchly Republican counties in the country, aside from one anomalous Congressional district represented by a Latina Democrat.
One secession proposal did have some early promise. Residents of counties in the Far North of California, along with several Oregon counties, were upset that the legislatures in Sacramento and Salem consistently ignored their requests for road improvements. They issued a somewhat tongue-in-cheek “Proclamation of Independence” as the new State of Jefferson at the end of November 1941. Unfortunately, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December pre-empted any news coverage of their proclamation. The war ended any further progress toward establishing the new state; and new roads built after the war made the reason for secession moot. But vestiges of the proposed State of Jefferson remain. The State of Jefferson Scenic Byway runs 175 kilometers from Yreka (the proposed state capital) to O’Brien, Oregon. And the Jefferson Public Radio network serves the state’s proposed territory.
From a travel perspective, California effectively is two states. That’s due to geography rather than politics. Los Angeles is 560 kilometers from San Francisco, an hour by air (not including getting to and from the airport and the unpredictable queues for “airport security”) or a six-hour drive (if you travel continuously on boring Interstates and don’t need to stop). Amtrak’s service between the two cities is suitable only for those who have ample time for a very leisurely journey. The closest thing to a direct train is the notoriously tardy Coast Starlight. It crawls once a day between Los Angeles and Emeryville (on the way to and from Seattle). A bus ride across the Bay completes the twelve-hour scenic adventure. Amtrak also offers several risible alternatives involving various combinations of trains and buses, which take between nine and a half and twelve hours. There is an active effort to build a high-speed train link between Southern California and the Bay Area. But this very costly plan is so mired in politics and bureaucracy that I would bet against it becoming operational in the lifetime of most people reading this.
So where is the dividing line between the “two Californias”? There isn’t one! San Francisco is clearly in Northern California, Los Angeles and San Diego are clearly in Southern California. But that distinction gets very blurry in the central part of the state. Travel authors draw the boundary arbitrarily, based on what they consider most convenient for organizing or dividing up their books. So I’ve arbitrarily bisected the state along a rather fuzzy imaginary line that runs from Monterey on the coast to the northern boundary of Death Valley on the Nevada border.
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