The Getty Museum, designed by architect Richard Meier, is on a hilltop just west of the 405 freeway in Los Angeles and offers good views of Bel-Air and the surrounding Southern California landscape. Be sure and check out the renowned impressionist and post-impressionist paintings by van Gogh (Irises), Renoir, and Monet.
Links: The Getty
This beautiful statue and coastal view is in Cabrillo National Monument near where Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo landed in 1542 as the first European to set foot on the west coast of the United States.
A fun place to visit in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is Seventeen Palms Oasis, which boasts a series of beautiful palm trees (Washingtonia filifera) set against the stark desert. It’s a nice shaded place for a picnic lunch while you check out the “prospector’s post office” which contains a visitor’s log book, notes, etc.
The largest building at Hearst Castle (near San Simeon) is called “Casa Grande”. Its 68,500 sq. ft. contain 38 bedrooms, 30 fireplaces, 42 bathrooms, and 14 sitting rooms.
Point Loma/Cabrillo National Monument offers some great views of downtown San Diego as you look back across San Diego Bay, but the pilots of these two sailboats have an even better view.
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This ocean view is from the Bull Taco eatery that is within the San Elijo State Beach campground and shows multiple armed forces helicopters flying north up the beach while several surfers wait for the next big wave.
Links: San Elijo State Beach
At very low tides the Solana Beach tide pools are a great place to wander and explore. They are located at the north end of Tide Beach Park and just south of Cardiff State Beach.
The Palomar Observatory’s 200-inch (5.1-meter) Hale Telescope was for decades the largest effective telescope in operation. Owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology, the Observatory is but one of the many things to do on 6,138 foot Palomar Mountain.
This view of the Carrizo Gorge was taken from the Sacatone Overlook that is within the McCain Valley Resource Conservation Area which is off I8 just north of Boulevard, CA. The trestles you see are part of the San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway, which has been referred to as “The Impossible Railroad”.
Links: McCain Valley RCA
Tunnel View is a scenic overlook on State Route 41 in Yosemite National Park that offers that iconic, expansive view of Yosemite Valley including El Capitan, Half Dome, and Bridalveil Fall.
Links: Yosemite Viewpoints
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