2002
30m

Summary California has more than 280 state parks plus many nationally-protected areas and local parks. In each episode, Huell Howser visits a different park, exploring its natural beauty, history, and unique geographical and recreational features. View more details

Documentary

2002
30m

California's Golden Parks

Directed : Unknown

Written : Unknown

Stars : Huell Howser Breck Parkman Scott Gediman Johna Hurl

All cast & crew

9.3

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Apr 25, 2002

Countries of origin : United States

Official sites : Official site

Language : English

Production companies : Huell Howser Productions

Documentary

Details

Genres : Documentary

Release date : Apr 25, 2002

Countries of origin : United States

Official sites : Official site

Language : English

Production companies : Huell Howser Productions

Photos

Huell Howser and Breck Parkman in California's Golden Parks (2002)

Episodes

View All Seasons

Episode 1 • Apr 25, 2002

Big Basin

Huell tours Big Basin Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Established in 1902, it's California's oldest State Park and is celebrating its centennial.

Episode 2 • May 28, 2002

Citrus State Historic Park

Huell goes to California Citrus State Historic Park in Riverside, an open air museum which recaptures the days when "citrus was king" in California. The park preserves citrus history and its groves continue to produce high-quality fruit.

Episode 3 • Jun 27, 2002

Joss House

Huell Howser travels to Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park, home to a Taoist Temple of Worship and the oldest still-in-use Chinese Temple in California. The temple became part of the California State Park System in 1956.

Episode 4 • Jul 25, 2002

Shasta

Because it was the site of the northern-most gold strike, Shasta, six miles west of Redding, was a prosperous city and county seat from 1850 to 1890. Huell tours Shasta State Historic Park, including ruins of Gold Rush-era brick buildings.

Episode 5 • Aug 29, 2002

Lassen

Huell goes to Lassen Volcanic National Park to see the lava flows, jagged craters and steaming sulfur vents that make up some of Lassen's breathtaking landscape.

Episode 6 • Sep 26, 2002

Montaña de Oro

This state park near Morro Bay is named for the mountain of golden wildflowers that bloom there in the spring. Huell discovers the park's boundless natural beauty which also includes rugged cliffs, secluded beaches, streams and canyons.

Episode 7 • Oct 22, 2002

Sutter's Fort

Huell travels to Sutter's Fort State Historic Park in midtown Sacramento. The park marks the 1839 settlement that would become the state's capital and play a major role in California history when gold was discovered nearby in 1848.

Episode 8 • Nov 28, 2002

Old Town San Diego

San Diego became California's first Spanish outpost when a mission and fort were built in 1769. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, the most visited State Park, recreates life in the Mexican and early American periods of 1821 to 1872.

Episode 9 • Dec 24, 2002

Cabrillo

Huell goes to see the statue and museum overlooking San Diego Bay at Cabrillo National Monument, which commemorates Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo's 1542 expedition, the first Europeans to set foot on what would become the west coast of the USA.

Episode 10 • Jan 28, 2003

Bale Grist

Huell travels three miles north of St. Helena to Bale Grist Mill State Historic Park, site of a water-powered grist mill built in 1846 that was the social center where Napa Valley settlers gathered to have grain ground into meal or flour.

Episode 11 • Feb 25, 2003

Año Nuevo

Año Nuevo State Reserve has one of the world's largest breeding colonies for northern elephant seals. After a stop at Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Huell visits this sandy point 55 miles from San Francisco to see the seals during mating season.

Episode 12 • Mar 25, 2003

Donner Memorial

In the Sierra Nevada, Huell goes to Donner Memorial State Park which commemorates pioneers who immigrated to California in the mid-1800s. It's named for the Donner Party that suffered the 1846-47 winter here and almost half the group died.

Episode 13 • May 11, 2003

Mining Museum

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

Episode 14 • May 27, 2003

Madrona Marsh

Huell tours Madrona Marsh Preserve with its newly opened Nature Center. This 43-acre vernal wetlands, a city park in the heart of Torrance, has been saved from future development and a history of oil drilling by dedicated local citizens.

Episode 15 • Jul 29, 2003

Chautauqua

Huell visits Temescal Gateway Park in Pacific Palisades. The canyon had been a meeting place for Native Americans. At the height of the Chautauqua Movement in 1922 one of the last independent camps was established and the town was founded.

Episode 16 • Aug 26, 2003

Black Diamond Mine

Huell travels to the Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve in the East Bay, stops by the Underground Mining Museum, and also hikes to the remains of the mines.

Episode 17 • Sep 18, 2003

Augustus Hawkins

Huell finds some eager Junior Rangers and open-space serenity in the heart of L.A. at Augustus F. Hawkins Nature Park, named to honor the man who represented South Central L.A. in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1963 to 1991.

Episode 18 • Dec 30, 2003

Fern Canyon

Huell hikes Fern Canyon at Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, a 14,000-acre sanctuary of old-growth coast redwoods, which offers hiking, nature study, wildlife viewing, beach combing, picnicking, a visitor center and a nature store.

Episode 19 • Jan 27, 2004

Asilomar

Huell goes to Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove on Monterey Peninsula. Now a state park with nearby dunes and beach, this "refuge by the sea" began in 1913 as a camp for the YWCA with historic buildings designed by Julia Morgan.

Episode 20 • Feb 24, 2004

Fort Humboldt

Huell goes to the Civil War military post Fort Humboldt in Eureka. At this State Historic Park he learns about Captain Ulysses S. Grant's brief 1854 tenure at the fort, the local Native Americans, and rides a historic logging locomotive.

Episode 21 • Apr 15, 2004

Joaquin Miller

Huell goes to a park in the Oakland Hills named for Joaquin Miller, the Poet of the Sierra, who settled there in the late 1800s. With sweeping views of the Bay Area, it has one of the only urban second-growth redwood groves in existence.

Episode 22 • Apr 27, 2004

Cuyamaca Rancho

Cuyamaca Rancho, a 25,000-acre State Park located east of San Diego, was devastated by wildfires in October 2003. Huell makes a somber visit to learn about plans to help these fragile wildlands recover quickly and to prevent future damage.

Episode 23 • Jun 29, 2004

Irvine Ranch Land Reserve

Huell explores Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, more than 50,000 acres of permanently-protected open space in the heart of Orange County offering a menu of recreational opportunities on land stretching 22 miles from the mountains to the sea.

Episode 24 • Aug 24, 2004

Alum Rock

Huell explores Alum Rock Park, a beautiful natural area in the Diablo Range foothills just seven miles east of downtown San Jose. Founded in 1872, it is the oldest city park in California.

Episode 25 • Sep 29, 2004

China Camp

China Camp State Park on San Francisco Bay is the last remaining example of the Chinese fishing villages that once dotted the shoreline. Huell walks through the village, learns about its history, and sails in a replica of a Chinese junk.

Episode 26 • Oct 26, 2004

Bufano Peace Statue

Huell uncovers a hidden treasure in the form of a small, little-known state park located on the rocky, windswept coast of Sonoma County. The entire park at Bufano Peace Statue is only 60 feet around and goes over 100 feet in the air.

Episode 27 • Dec 28, 2004

Pio Pico

Huell visits Pio Pico State Historic Park, the site of "El Ranchito," the final home of the last Mexican Governor of California.

Episode 28 • Jan 04, 2005

Tarantulas

Huell goes to Henry W. Coe State Park to attend the annual Tarantula Fest. Put on specifically to break down the negative myths and stereotypes so many people have about these hairy spiders, this festival has become very popular.

Episode 29 • Jan 11, 2005

John Muir Home

Huell tours the Victorian home in Martinez where naturalist John Muir lived from 1890 to his death in 1914. He meets the special folks who are responsible for preserving this important site.

Episode 30 • Mar 31, 2005

Yuba Gold Field

Huell travels to the Yuba Goldfields near Marysville and learns about the mining operation along the Yuba River that was at one time the most profitable operation in the world.

Episode 31 • May 02, 2005

Joshua Tree

Huell and ecologist Jim Cornett explore Joshua Tree National Park for a look at the amazing namesake trees found in only four states and no where else in the world. This springtime visit shows why the park is such a national treasure.

Episode 32 • May 11, 2005

Carrizo Plain

Huell learns about the rare plants and animals plus geologic and human history of Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County. Its 250,000-acre native grassland is what much of central California was like in the past.

Episode 33 • Jun 22, 2005

Bidwell

Huell explores 3,670-acre Bidwell Park in Chico, one of the nation's largest municipal parks. 2005 is the centennial of the original gift of pristine countryside by the Bidwell family, Chico's founders, to the city for all people to enjoy.

Episode 34 • Jun 29, 2005

Columbia Diggins

Columbia is a wonderfully preserved Gold Rush-era town and its central district has been a State Historic Park since 1945. Huell attends the annual Columbia Diggins 1852 celebration, a reenactment of the early days when it was a tent town.

Episode 35 • Jul 06, 2005

Yosemite Falls Trail

Huell's off to Yosemite National Park where he walks the newly rehabilitated trails to the base of Yosemite Falls, the highest waterfall in North America.

Episode 36 • Jul 13, 2005

American River Parkway

Huell sets off from where the Sacramento and American Rivers meet on a bike ride along the beautiful 23-mile American River Parkway.

Episode 37 • Jul 20, 2005

Stanford Mansion

Huell tours Leland Stanford Mansion State Historic Park, once the home of one of the state's most important and powerful families. Today this historic mansion has been beautifully restored and is open to everyone to discover its treasures.

Episode 38 • Oct 26, 2005

Hetch Hetchy

Before the Tuolumne River in Yosemite National Park was dammed in the 1920s, John Muir said Hetch Hetchy Valley was as beautiful as Yosemite Valley. Huell travels to this spectacular place to learn about its past and reconsider its future.

Episode 39 • Jan 10, 2006

Wrigley Botanical Gardens

Huell goes to Santa Catalina Island to tour the William Wrigley Jr. Memorial and Botanical Garden which features a stunning tower monument and gardens with hundreds of species endemic to all California islands and from around the world.

Episode 40 • Feb 10, 2006

San Simeon

Huell visits Hearst San Simeon State Park, one of California's oldest state parks, to learn about a historic conservation plan that will transfer about 13 miles of coastline and over 800 acres from the private Hearst Ranch to the park.

Episode 41 • Feb 14, 2006

Carpinteria State Beach

Huell spends a day in Carpinteria, 12 miles southeast of Santa Barbara, at two wonderful parks. Salt Marsh Nature Park is a success story of preserving natural resources. Known for recreation, the State Beach has a history rich in tar.

Episode 42 • Apr 10, 2006

Audubon

Huell tours the Audubon Center at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park, an oasis of native habitats 5 minutes from downtown LA. Environmental education programs engage children in the natural world to give them a personal stake in its protection.

Episode 43 • May 07, 2006

Ahjumawi

Huell tours Ahjumawi Lava Springs State Park. "Where the waters come together" is a translation of the word Ahjumawi, which is also the self-describing word used by the band of Pit River Native Americans who inhabit the area.

Episode 44 • May 09, 2006

Kelso Depot

Huell attends the grand reopening of the Kelso Depot and learns about its rich history. Abandoned by Union Pacific Railroad in 1985, this beautifully restored 1924 building is now the main Visitor Center for Mojave National Preserve.

Episode 45 • Jul 02, 2006

Underground Old Sacramento

Huell goes below Sacramento to explore the hidden historic sidewalks, doorways and building relics that were part of the original downtown area before the entire city was raised one level due to frequent floods from the Sacramento River.

Episode 46 • Aug 02, 2006

Cayuga Playground

Huell visits the Cayuga Playground in downtown San Francisco. The playground was once a beaten down, overgrown, weed-choked space and has been transformed by Demi Braceros into a beautiful park with flowers and paths decorated with twisted twig fences, wood carvings and inspirational messages.

Episode 47 • Aug 17, 2006

The California State Railroad Museum

Huell visits California State Railroad Museum, in Old Sacramento State Historic Park, one of the finest and most visited railroad museums. He explores restored rail cars, locomotives, and exhibits that illustrate California's rail history.

Episode 48 • Sep 08, 2006

Camarillo Ranch

Huell tours Camarillo Ranch, named for "the last Spanish Don", Adolfo Camarillo, who inherited the 10,000-acre ranch in 1880 when he was 16. Now it's a small city park with the restored Victorian Queen Anne style house, barn, and stables.

Episode 49 • Sep 21, 2006

South Yuba River State Park

Huell visits the south fork of the Yuba River. The area includes the longest single-span covered bridge in the world, four miles of the steep rugged canyon of the South Yuba River, and the Independence Trail - a wheelchair accessible trail. See water pouring over massive granite ledges, and historic toll crossings and bridges that tell a story of day-to-day life during the Gold Rush era.

Episode 50 • Nov 10, 2006

Whiskeytown

Huell goes to Whiskeytown National Recreation Area to hear all about this new and improved park and to explore the freshly cut trail to a recently-discovered enormous 400-foot waterfall that was hidden on private property until 2006.

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California's Golden Parks

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