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and other cinematic cowboys who filmed Westerns in the nearby Alabama Hills. A few tips: Springtime, when the Sierra is still clad in snow, is the prettiest time for the drive, although some side trips may be limited. For an overnight stop, the town of Bishop offers the largest selection of motels and restaurants. Day Trips You don't have to spend days or weeks on the highway to see the best of California. Within easy reach of major cities are exqui- site road trips you can do in less than a day. San Francisco Head north, across the Golden Gate Bridge, to sample some of Northern California's most bucolic scenery. Almost within sight of San Francisco's skyscrapers you'll come to Muir Woods National Monument, a cathedral-like preserve of old-growth red- woods at the foot of Mount Tamalpais. Follow Highway 1 to Point Reyes National Seashore, where you might catch tule elk grazing on misty hillsides above the wave- battered coast. West Marin County, with its organic farms, artisanal bakeries and gourmet cheesemakers, is the breadbasket for San Francisco's foodie culture. Stop for lunch at the Hog Island Oyster Farm, where you can munch on bivalve mollusks pulled straight from Tomales Bay. The long, narrow bay, incidentally, is a submerged section of the notorious San Andreas Fault. Farther north on Highway 1 you'll come to Bodega Bay, a sleepy fishing village where Alfred Hitchcock unleashed avian terror in The Birds. The Tides restaurant, where ter- rified townspeople took shelter, is still there, although hardly recognizable in its current form. A few miles inland, in the separate town of Bodega, you can find the familiar schoolhouse and church from the movie. Continue on to Sebastopol, renowned for its juicy Gravenstein apples and an outpost of Sonoma County's wine country. Turn south on Highway 101 and head back to San Francisco, stopping for a celebratory cocktail in Sausalito, with the lights of the city twinkling across the bay. Los Angeles On a day trip along the Angeles Crest Scenic Byway you're more likely to spot a bighorn sheep than a Kardashian. As you wind up and over narrow ridgetops in the San Gabriel Mountains, above the smog, your vistas range from the vast, chocolate-brown Mojave Desert to Catalina Island. Also known as State Highway 2, the 66-mile-long Angeles Crest Scenic Byway was built 100 years ago to be "the most scenic and pictur- 42 2 0 1 7 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A MUIR WOODS NATIONAL Monument, below; the Golden Gate Bridge, right; Switzer Falls Trail, Los Angeles, opposite top; San Diego harbor and skyline, opposite boXom. ROAD TRIPS