☰Yucaipa

Oak Glen, fifteen kilometres east of Yucaipa on a steep mountain road, is the obvious half-day outing. The Glen sits at around 1,500 metres in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains and is the closest apple country to Los Angeles — a string of family-run orchards, cider mills, and country stores along Oak Glen Road. Riley's Farm, Los Rios Rancho, and Snow-Line Orchard are the long-established names. Visit in October for the harvest, when the orchards are packed; come in winter for the chance of snow and almost no crowds.

Other options: Big Bear Lake, an hour further up Highway 38 in the high mountains, for skiing in winter and sailing in summer. Joshua Tree National Park is two hours east. Palm Springs and the desert resorts are forty-five minutes south.

Yucaipa is a foothill town more interesting for its surroundings than for its centre. The regional park has three lakes for swimming and fishing; a 19th-century adobe — one of the oldest standing buildings in San Bernardino County — sits at the western edge. Above the town, Wildwood Canyon and Crafton Hills give quick access to scrubby chaparral hiking with views back across the valley to the snow line of the San Bernardino Mountains.

The bigger draw is up the road. Oak Glen, fifteen minutes east on a winding road into the foothills, is the apple-orchard country that supplies most of Southern California's u-pick fruit in autumn. Come in October for the harvest, when the orchards turn into a slightly chaotic family festival of pies, cider, hay rides, and pony rides — there is nothing else quite like it within reach of Los Angeles.