The hook
The tilted sandstone slabs where Captain Kirk fought the Gorn stand an hour north of LA, shoved up on end by the San Andreas Fault.
01Why it's worth it
Vasquez Rocks is a set of sandstone beds that the San Andreas system tilted on end, some leaning at fifty degrees, the biggest sweeping a hundred and fifty feet into the air, in a scrubby park near Agua Dulce. The Elkhorn Fault, a branch of the San Andreas, runs right through the ground, which is why it looks the way it does. It takes its name from Tiburcio Vásquez, the bandit who hid in the rocks in the 1870s. What made it famous is Hollywood: the slabs have been filmed for a century and are instantly recognizable, the backdrop of countless Westerns, The Flintstones, Bill and Ted, and above all Star Trek, where Kirk brawled the lizard-man Gorn on exactly these rocks. You can scramble straight up them and walk a stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail through, standing where every low-budget alien planet was shot.
02How to experience it
The park is off the Antelope Valley Freeway near Agua Dulce, about forty-five minutes north of Los Angeles and a long five hours from the Bay. It's free, open in daylight, with a small nature center. Scramble the main formation and do the short loop, but come early, because there's no shade and the place bakes. It's an easy break off Interstate 5.