RECREATION AND PLACES OF INTEREST (Demographics Table of Contents) 

• State Parks
  
  The California state park system includes about 128 units. The largest in area is Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, covering 243,000 hectares (600,000 acres) of desert and mountain country in southern California. Humboldt Redwoods State Park, in the northwest, is the best known of the several state parks that preserve some of the tallest remaining stands of redwood trees. Calaveras Big Trees State Park, in the Sierra Nevada, is noted for its fine stands of big trees. Point Lobos State Reserve, south of Monterey, preserves a rockbound stretch of the Pacific Coast, which forms, with its varied wildlife, a magnificent outdoor natural-history museum.
  
  Hearst San Simeon State Historical Monument, nestled in the wooded hills overlooking the Pacific, midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, preserves the lavish residence and estate of the former journalist and publisher William Randolph Hearst. Among the many California state parks of historic interest is Columbia Historic State Park, in the tiny village of Columbia just north of Sonora. Columbia has been preserved as a typical example of a Mother Lode mining community during the gold rush.

Demographics Table of Contents)