Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

Celebrate the seasons in the Sierras with leaf peeping in the fall (left photo), hiking & sight-seeing in the summer (middle), and waterfall spectacles to behold in the spring (right photo).

For the majority of Californians living near the coast, the Sierra mountain range is out of sight and often out of mind. However, the mountain with a name that means "snowy range" is 400 miles in length (nearly half the state's length) by 70 miles wide, and features so many amazing attractions that you owe it to yourself to spend a vacation checking them out--a portion of them, at least! We mentioned recently that you can save around $15 by getting into the Sierra's national parks free on certain days.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE "SIERRAS"

• Highest peak in the contiguous U.S.: Mount Whitney, elevation 14,505 ft
• Largest alpine lake in North America: Lake Tahoe
• Biggest trees in the world: Giant Sequoias
• 5 life zones, 100-million year old granite rock
• 3 national parks: Yosemite National Park (NP), Kings Canyon NP, Sequoia NP
• 20 California State Parks and 20 wilderness areas
• 19 ski resorts: Sugar Bowl, Soda Springs, Donner Ski Ranch, Boreal Mountain Terrain Park, Tahoe Donner, Northstar-at-Tahoe, Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Homewood Mountain Resort, Heavenly, Sierra at Tahoe, Kirkwood Ski Resort, Bear Valley, Dodge Ridge, Badger Pass Ski Area, June Mountain, Mammoth June, China Peak, Alta Sierra at Shirley Meadows

20 California State Parks:
Bodie SHP
Burton Creek SP
Calaveras Big Trees SP
D.L. Bliss SP
Donner Memorial SP
Ed Z'berg Sugar Pine Point SP
Emerald Bay SP
Grover Hot Springs SP
Kings Beach SRA
Lake Valley SRA
Mono Lake Tufa SRA
Ward Creek Property
Washoe Meadows SP
Wassama Round House SHP
Auburn SRA
California State Mining & Mineral Museum
Columbia State SHP
Empire Mine SHP
Indian Grinding Rock SHP
Malakoff Diggins SHP
Marshall Gold Discovery SHP
Railtown 1897 SHP
South Yuba River SHP