47 Best Sights in The Central Valley, California

Expect no heavy reds at this boutique operation specializing in Rhône-style whites. Owner-winemaker Susan Tipton, who sourced her grapes' vines from Château de Beaucastel in France's Châteauneuf du Pape appellation, produces Viognier, Roussanne, and Grenache Blanc but also spotlights lower-profile varietals like Bourboulenc and Clairette Blanche. (There's also a Grenache rosé.) Tastings, by appointment only, take place in a 100-year-old barn or just outside it, in either case with vineyard views.

This operation 11 miles east of downtown comes highly recommended for its excellent Spanish varietals and warm hospitality. The Albariño white and Tempranillo and Graciano reds often receive favorable critical notice, but everything is well made, including the non-Spanish Petit Verdot and old-vine Carignane. Bokisch welcomes picnickers; pick up fixings in town, and enjoy vineyard views while you dine.

At this combination zoo, botanical garden, and natural history museum, the emphasis is on the zoo. Within the reptile house lives every species of rattlesnake found in California. The landscaped grounds—about a 20-minute drive northeast of Bakersfield—also shelter captive bald eagles, tortoises, coyotes, black bears, and foxes. Additions in 2015 include a touch tank and jellyfish exhibit, a zip line, and a high ropes challenge course.

You can stroll among dozens of restored military aircraft at this outdoor facility. The vintage war birds include the B-25 Mitchell medium-range bomber—best known for the Jimmy Doolittle raid on Tokyo after the attack on Pearl Harbor—and the speedy SR-71 Blackbird, used for reconnaissance over Vietnam and Libya. A recently arrived star is an aircraft that from 1974 to 2006 was known as Air Force One whenever it transported the U.S president.

It's worth the slight detour off Highway 99 to learn about and pay homage to the dream of Allen Allensworth and other Black pioneers who, in 1908, founded Allensworth, the only California town settled, governed, and financed by African Americans. At its height, the town prospered as a key railroad transfer point, but after cars and trucks reduced railroad traffic and water was diverted for Central Valley agriculture, the town declined and was eventually deserted. Today, the restored and rebuilt schoolhouse, library, and other structures commemorate Allensworth's heyday, as do festivities that take place each October.

Taste, touch, and feel your way through orange and mandarin groves on a guided tour of this 180-acre working citrus farm. Tours last 60 minutes; tractor-pulled wagon tours are also available, as are more expensive walking tours. Kids and adults love the challenge of navigating the nation's only orange-grove maze, answering questions at a series of checkpoints to earn a prize at the end. You must book tours in advance online.

Sicilian immigrant Baldassare Forestiere spent four decades (1906–46) carving out an odd, subterranean realm of rooms, tunnels, grottoes, alcoves, and arched passageways that once extended for more than 10 acres between Highway 99 and busy, mall-pocked Shaw Avenue. Though not an engineer, Forestiere called on his memories of the ancient Roman structures he saw as a youth and on techniques he learned digging subways in New York and Boston. Only a fraction of his prodigious output is on view, but you can tour his underground living quarters, including bedrooms (one with a fireplace), the kitchen, living room, and bath, as well as a fishpond and auto tunnel. Skylights allow exotic full-grown fruit trees to flourish more than 20 feet belowground.

This 16-acre site is one of the Central Valley's top museum complexes. The indoor-outdoor Kern County Museum is an open-air, walk-through historic village with more than 55 restored or re-created buildings dating from the 1860s to the 1940s. "Black Gold: The Oil Experience," a permanent exhibit, shows how oil is created, discovered, extracted, and transformed for various uses. The Lori Brock Children's Discovery Center, for ages eight and younger, has hands-on displays and an indoor playground.

A cadre of sweet, well-informed volunteers runs this jam-packed throwback of a museum that's bigger than it looks from the outside. With exhibits about Lake Isabella, minerals and gems, old tools and farming implements, pioneer and native life, and Hollywood Westerns shot in the area, you’ll likely find something to intrigue you.

David Lucas was one of the first local producers to start making serious wine, and today the Zinfandels he and his wife, Heather Pyle-Lucas, make are among Lodi's most sought-after vintages. The Lucases, who previously worked at the Robert Mondavi Winery (she also made wine at Opus One), also craft a Chardonnay with subtle oak flavors and a Zinfandel rosé. Tastings, by appointment, often take place on a patio with a vineyard view.

With its translucent polycarbonate panels, concrete floor, and metal framing, this winery's high-ceilinged tasting room strikes an iconoclastic, industrial-sleek pose in rural Lodi. The Soucie Vineyard old-vine Zinfandel and the Trio and Duality red blends are three to seek out, but all the wines here are good.

The appointment-only tasting room at Berghold recalls an earlier wine era with its vintage Victorian interior, including restored, salvaged mantlepieces, leaded glass, and a 26-foot-long bar. The wines—among them Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, and Zinfandel—pay homage to French wine-making styles.

The 62-mile self-guided Blossom Trail driving tour takes in Fresno-area orchards, citrus groves, and vineyards during spring blossom season. The trail passes through small towns and past rivers, lakes, and canals. The most colorful and aromatic time to go is from late February to mid-March, when almond, plum, apple, apricot, and peach blossoms shower the landscape with shades of white, pink, and red. After the blossoms mature, the route is known as the Fruit Trail.

You can witness the everyday abundance of the Modesto area with a visit here; on offer are tasty samples, a film about almond growing, and many roasts and flavors of almonds, as well as other nuts.

For one-stop truck-stop entertainment, pull off the highway in Traver, where at Bravo Farms you can try your luck at an arcade shooting gallery, watch cheese being made, munch on barbecue and ice cream, play a round of minigolf, peruse funky antiques, buy produce, visit a petting zoo, and climb a multistory tree house. Taste a few "squeekers" (fresh cheese curds, so named because chewing them makes your teeth squeak), and then be on your way.

Worth a brief look if you're in town—for the photo op, if nothing else—this frozen-in-time street holds the last remains of Hanford's once-bustling Chinatown. The centerpiece is the 1893 Taoist Temple. The alley's other buildings of note include the decaying L.T. Sue Herb building.

The museum's key permanent collections include pre-Columbian Mesoamerican art, Andean pre-Columbian textiles and artifacts, Japanese prints, Berkeley School abstract expressionist paintings, and contemporary sculpture. Temporary exhibits include important traveling shows.

The zoo's most striking exhibit is its tropical rain forest, where you'll encounter exotic birds along paths and bridges. Elsewhere at the zoo live tigers, sloth bears, sea lions, tule elk, camels, elephants, and siamang apes. The facility has a high-tech reptile house and there's a petting zoo.

In pretty Victory Park, the Haggin has one of the Central Valley's finest art collections. Highlights include landscapes by Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran, a still life by Paul Gauguin, a Native American gallery, and an Egyptian mummy.

Fashions, furnishings, toys, and military artifacts at this living-history museum tell the region's story. The facility is inside the former Carnegie Library, a Romanesque-style building dating from 1905.

Lodi grape growers since the 1900s dawned, the Harney family only started a winery in 2006. Three Zinfandels star in a lineup that includes Albariño, Chardonnay, two rosés, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Primitivo, Tempranillo, and an old-vine Zinfandel port-style dessert wine. Extend your tasting with a glass in the "forest" garden, where three-century-old cedars supply the shade. Learn about the family and Lodi on the Home Ranch Tasting & Tour.

A downtown walking tour follows the iconic 1950s-era cruise route portrayed in Modesto native George Lucas's 1973 film American Graffiti. The path's 25 historic kiosk markers provide details about the filmmaker, the people and places that inspired him, and Modesto's history. The tour loops around 10th and 11th streets between K and G streets—start at 10th and K.

The prosperity that water brought to Modesto has attracted people from all over the world. The city holds a well-attended International Heritage Festival in early October that celebrates the cultures, crafts, and cuisines of many nationalities.

The downtown tasting room of owner-winemaker Jeremy Trettevik has the feel of an old-time saloon, though in good weather everyone sips in the umbrella-shaded patio out back. Creative red blends are the specialty, with sweet yet clean-on-the-palate wines like the Bluebonnet Albariño–Orange Muscat blend among the lighter options. Tastings are also held at the winery (closed Tuesday and Wednesday) in nearby Lockeford.

Shaded by ancient oak trees, an 1870s farm building houses the tasting room of this winery whose vineyards and horse ranch have been in the same family since 1863. In addition to producing old-vine Zinfandels, it presents blues, country, and rock concerts on some summer Saturdays. A second tasting room, open on weekends, is downtown at 27 East Locust Street.

Trails at this 344-acre wildlife sanctuary off the main road to Sequoia National Park lead past majestic valley oak, sycamore, cottonwood, and willow trees. Among the 134 bird species you might spot are hawks, hummingbirds, and great blue herons. Bobcats, lizards, coyotes, and cottontails also live here. The Sycamore Trail has digital signage with QR codes you can scan with your smartphone to access plant and animal information.

The drive along palm-lined Kearney Boulevard is one of the best reasons to visit the museum, which stands in shaded 225-acre Kearney Park. The century-old home of M. Theo Kearney, Fresno's onetime "raisin king," is accessible only on guided 45-minute tours.

The old-vine Zinfandels of this winery named for the bricks used to construct Lodi buildings of days past score well in competitions for their smooth tannins and complex flavors. Like the Cabernet Sauvignon, they're reasonably priced considering the quality. Lighter offerings include sparkling wines, Albariño, and the Vorgänger white blend. If the weather's good, taste outside and enjoy garden and vineyard views. Request a Reserve Flight ($20) to sample top-of-the-line reds.

The featured attraction here is the 355-foot-long Knights Ferry covered bridge. The beautiful and haunting structure, built in 1863, crosses the Stanislaus River near the ruins of an old gristmill. The park has camping, picnic, and barbecue areas along the riverbanks, as well as campgrounds accessible only by boat. You can hike, fish, canoe, and raft on miles of rapids.

Get a feel for Lodi wines at the center, which has a tasting bar and viticultural exhibits. You can also buy wine and pick up a free winery map.