#2: Four Beautiful Seasons

People from the East Coast often tell me that they like California, but they need "all four seasons." While I admit that much of the West Coast doesn't have as drastic of seasonal changes as the East Coast does, I do argue that you can have the best of both worlds when you travel throughout California at different times of the year.  Here's why:

Summers are sunny, warm, and not humid.  If you like the heat, you can venture to hotter parts of the state, but if you want to stay cool, the coast is always waiting for you!  Pictured below is a hiking trail and a beach, which are only an hour apart by car.

You can go for an afternoon hike in the sun if you like the heat...

...or you can cool down at the beach!

Leaves in Bay Area neighborhoods change colors as summer turns into fall, so you get to see greens, yellows, oranges, and hints of red on the trees. As you can see in the unedited picture below, red autumn leaves seemed to tie-dye the sunlight my camera captured!

Sunrise through the autumn leaves in my neighborhood.

Spring is a gorgeous time for hiking. Forest flowers are in bloom and the vegetation is lush from winter rains. Hiking trails made of dirt are still damp but not soggy, which gives your shoes a firm grip to prevent you from slipping on eroded soil (which happens more often when trails dry out). Spring hikes are my absolute favorite!

One of many cute flowers I spotted on a springtime hike.

Last but not least, winter in California is truly unique.  The majority of California is snow-free, meaning no roads to plow or black ice to slip on unless you head up to the mountains.  Instead, there are decent amounts of rain throughout the state on a good year. Currently, California is in a severe drought, more precipitation would be a blessing this winter— so as you can tell, it doesn't even rain that much.  

When it isn't raining, winter is one of the best times to go to San Francisco and even Bay Area beaches.  It might be a little chilly, but there's less fog in winter than in summer! 

Santa Cruz, mid-December.  Can you believe it?

But of course, if you crave your snow, California mountains got you covered.  Lake Tahoe is one of my personal favorite snowy spots.  If you're a skiing fanatic, Tahoe has tons of awesome ski resorts to choose from.  And if you just want to play around in the snow, go sledding, snowshoeing, etc, there are lots of options for you too.  Tahoe is great for the whole family, and is just a four hour drive from the Bay Area!

View of the lake as seen from the ski slopes of Squaw Valley

My takeaway message is that California does have all four seasons, and you can customize them to your liking by taking trips around the state.  While you may not get all the four seasons in one city, you're sure to find them all if you go exploring the state at different parts of the year— and you don't even have to shovel your driveway!  

Thanks for reading!