California state parks are a living history of our wonderful state. The story of our state is woven into fabric of our state historic parks. These parks bring our complex history and important figures from our past to life to learn from. They are treasures of our diverse and fascinating heritage, that have been carefully preserved of those who came before us for our benefit, and for the benefits of all those that will follow in our footsteps.
These parks are also home to California’s natural history. These parks provide services from ecosystems that we need. Pollinators for our agricultural crops live in state parks, filtering of our clean water happens in state parks, habitat for salmon fisheries happen in these parks because we have protected them. In state parks you can learn about animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more.
While schools are closed, we hope you can turn to your amazing California state parks to learn something new and educate the next generation of park stewards!
Explore California’s state parks
Learn more about California’s incredible state parks through our Explore California blog series. Each post includes in-depth history of the park to give you an inside look at our incredible park system.
- Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park
- Mount Tamalpais State Park
- Weaverville Joss House State Historic Park
- Pigeon Point Light Station State Historic Park
- Watts Towers of Simon Rodia State Historic Park
- Donner Memorial State Park
Guides
Explore California’s native plants, wildlife, and best spots through our online guide!
Resources
Our incredible park partners are here to make distance learning even easier. Check out these amazing education resources from our partners.
- PORTS – An online distance learning resource for teachers and their students in the classroom.
- Junior Rangers – Activity book to help you explore that parks.
- Activity: Explore bugs in your neighborhood!
- Activity: The next generation of bird-watchers!
- Activity: Navigate the stars!
- Activity: Get to know your park symbols!
- Activity: Match up animal tracks!