Spring, summer, fall and winter aren’t as pronounced in Southern California as they are in other parts of the United States. As of this post, it’s supposed to be fall, but just two weeks ago, temperatures were in the 90s.
In search of a place in California with an east coast and autumn feel, I ventured two hours inland over the weekend with family to a place called Oak Glen in San Bernardino County.
It definitely did not feel like the California I’ve seen so far. Who knew such a place even existed? But California is really large enough to be it’s own country. At nearly 164,000 square miles, it beats the size of the Philippines (115,831 square miles) and many European nations (Germany = 137,903, Netherlands = 16,033, Greece = 50,949, Italy = 116, 347, Switzerland = 15,940 square miles). So it’s actually not surprising that the Golden State has such diverse landscapes. From the desert to national parks like Yosemite, to the stunning Central Coast, California has so much to offer.
One of the big draws of Oak Glen is apple picking. But since there weren’t any more apples to pick (apple season officially starts on Labor Day weekend and runs till Thanksgiving weekend, but there weren’t any left on Halloween weekend), we opted to do a couple of other things instead:
Go through a corn maze
Go window & actual shopping at a shop at Los Rios Rancho
We couldn’t go apple picking, so I got a bottle of apple cider that wasn’t pasteurized. The warning label seemed dramatic, but home-made smoothies aren’t pasteurized either, so I drank the cider with hardly any reservations. It was actually a refreshing drink and it only cost about $3!
Take an easy hike through the Wildlands Conservancy (aka Oak Glen Preserve)
Walk around Oak Tree Village
Oak Glen is a great place for a day trip if you’re in Southern California looking for something to do away from metropolitan areas 🙂