Virtual Guidebooks to
Central California, including San Francisco

I have created seven Virtual Guidebooks containing more than 1300 VR panoramas to cover Central California:

• The City of San Francisco

• The San Francisco Bay Area

• Monterey, Big Sur and the Central Coast

• El Camino Real

• The San Joaquin Valley

• Yosemite National Park

• Sequoia/Kings Canyon and the Southern Sierra

To begin, just click one of the guidebooks (regions) listed here, or click on the map, or scroll down to see a detailed list. Not familiar with VR panoramas? - CLICK HERE - to see an example.

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Central California is not a generally recognized subdivision of the state, it is just a personal definition I have made to serve the interests of this site. The region that results from this partition is unusually rich in famous places and beautiful scenery. Add to this the fact that I happen to live in this "state" and it is no wonder that I have so many panoramas to illustrate it.

Its northern boundary runs through the Golden Gate and Carquinez Strait, then through the Delta and across the Sierra Nevada following the divide between the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers (i.e. between Yosemite and Sonora Pass). Thus by my definition San Francisco is in Central California but Marin is in Northern California. The deserts east of the Sierra crest are quite distinct and belong to my "state" of Southern and Eastern California.

The southern boundary follows an old geographic convention and runs from Point Conception along the crest of the Santa Ynez Range just north of Santa Barbara, through the knot of mountains around Tejon Pass, then east and gradually curving north to follow the Sierra crest all the way up past Yosemite.

Most of this region is easily accessible from my home base in the East Bay and I take pictures here year around. Oddly enough, there are some areas very close to home (such as Oakland and the Napa Valley) for which I still have no panoramas!

• Logically, the first virtual guidebook covers the City of San Francisco,

• supplemented by another for the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area (except the part north of the bay - see Marin and the North Bay Counties).

• The next pair of guidebooks cover Monterey, Big Sur and the Central Coast

• paralleled just inland by El Camino Real for the coast ranges and valleys.

• The San Joaquin Valley is the south half of the Great Central Valley.

• The Sierra Nevada is divided between Yosemite National Park in the central range,

• and Sequoia-Kings Canyon and the Southern Sierra continuing south to the Tehachapis.

Contact Don Bain: dbain@virtualguidebooks.com

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