California's Golden Parks

On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed at San Diego Bay. This event marked the first time that a European expedition had set foot on what later became the west coast of the United States. Huell travels to Cabrillo National Monument, where Cabrillo's exploration is commemorated with a statue and a museum flanked by scenic views of San Diego's harbor and skyline.

It was once the center of social activity as Napa Valley settlers gathered to have their corn and wheat ground into meal or flour. Travel with Huell Howser just three miles north of St. Helena off Highway 29 to Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park, the site of a water-powered grist mill that was built in 1846.

Año Nuevo State Reserve is the site of the largest mainland breeding colony in the world for the northern elephant seal. Huell ventures out to this low, rocky, windswept point jutting out into the Pacific Ocean 55 miles south of San Francisco to see hundreds of seals during breeding season.

Huell travels to the beautiful Sierra Nevadas and Donner Memorial State Park which commemorates those who emigrated to California from the east in the mid-1800s. It is named for one of the earliest pioneer wagon trains, the Donner Party, forced by circumstances to camp at the east end of Donner Lake in the winter of 1846-47, resulting in human suffering and loss of life.

Huell drops by the California State Mining and Mineral Museum in Mariposa to see our state's official collection of more than 13,000 minerals, rocks, gems, historic artifacts and fossils.

Rescued from future development and a history of oil drilling, the 42-acre Madrona Marsh Nature Preserve in Torrance is one of the last remaining vernal marshes in Southern California. The non-profit, volunteer organization Friends of the Madrona Marsh fought vigorously throughout the '70s and '80s to save this delicate natural habitat. Although Huell's visit shows us a great success story, he also learns that the restoration is ongoing.

Huell visits Temescal Gateway Park in Pacific Palisades which was a major center of the Chautauqua Movement in the 1920s and ‘30s.

Huell travels to the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in the East Bay. It was once a thriving coal and sand mining area, and is now a great place to bike and hike while taking in the beautiful landscape filled with blue oaks, manzanitas and carpets of springtime flowers. Huell stops by the Underground Mining Museum and also hikes to the remains of the mines.

Named in honor of Augustus F. Hawkins, who represented South Central Los Angeles from 1963 to 1991 in the U.S. House of Representatives, Augustus F. Hawkins Natural Park provides open space serenity in the heart of Los Angeles. It was once a cement pipe storage yard and is now an 8.5-acre state-of-the-art natural park which hosts numerous interpretive and learning programs. Join Huell as he visits the park and some eager Junior Rangers.