The California Five

The California Five

The California National Park Summer Classic

Est. 1949 · Sierra Nevada & the desert parks

The California National Park Summer Classic

Every summer you and your rival meet at the Tioga Pass gate for the Classic. The rules have never changed: each of you draws a five-park itinerary, seals it, and hands it to the other. You spend the season chasing down the route you were given — you know which five parks are on it, not where they are.

The pass opened late this year, on the fourth of July, after a heavy winter. An early El Niño closes it 100 days later. Every square you scout costs one trail day, so you have a hundred of them and no more.

Find every square of a park and you earn its stamp in your park passport. Collect all five stamps before your rival and the Classic is yours — The California Five.

This year's five parks

Death Valley5 cells3,408,396 acres
Joshua Tree4 cells795,156 acres
Yosemite3 cells761,748 acres
Kings Canyon3 cells461,901 acres
Sequoia2 cells404,063 acres

Ranger's briefing · before you draw your route

How to play

Draw your route. Pick a park, press R to switch between running it across or down, then click a square on The Route You Drew to lay it down. Parks can't overlap or run off the map. Draw a Random Route does it all for you, and Clear Route wipes the map so you can start over.
Seal and trade. The button unlocks once all five parks are down. Your rival gets your route and you get theirs, sealed — you know which five parks are on it, not where. You take the first scouting day.
Watch the calendar. The pass opens on July 4, 2026 and closes 100 days later. A date is one trail day: you scout a square, your rival scouts a square, and only then does the calendar turn over.
Spend a scouting day. Click a square on The Route Drawn For You. A dead end is a day burned on a forest road; a trail marker means you're on the route, and you're told which park. Find every square of a park and it's stamped into your passport, dated the day you finished it. The Explorer's Log shows the last few days — scroll up inside to read the whole season.
Scout by voice. Rather talk? Turn on Voice Scouting, allow the microphone, and say “scout A4” — it counts exactly as clicking that square.
Collect the California Five. Stamp all five parks before your rival stamps yours. The trail day counter beside the calendar tracks how many of your hundred days you have spent and how many your rival has. The Story and How to Play stay in the controls, so you can come back to either window mid-season.

Your itinerary is finished

Sealed and handed over

Five parks, written out and sealed. Your rival is handing you theirs at the same moment — neither of you knows where the other's parks sit. Tioga Pass opens on the fourth of July.

The Summer Classic is over