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.