Hotel California USA mountain resorts offer winter sports such as skiing and summer activities such as hiking, fishing and kayaking in some of the most splendid settings in all the world. Immortalized in black & white photographs from famed Ansel Adams, Yosemite National Parks is awesome to visit and see. The hotels within the the parks are situated in Yosemite Valley at the base of sheer cliffs where waterfalls plunge to the valley floor.  

Two major  mountain ranges in California,  The Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range are quite different. The largest, the Sierra Nevada range, runs 800 km or 500 miles (112 km wide or 70 mi.) with elevations between 7000 and 15,000 feet. October - November usually heralds the arrival of snow, which continues  throughout the winter.

The famous Mammoth Mountain is bounded on the west by Sierra Nevada crest. While the town of Mammoth Lakes is situated at 7,800 feet, Mammoth Mountain rises dramatically to elevations that exceed 12,000 feet. This makes Mammoth Mountain a popular destination for skiers, hikers and mountain bikers.
 

The Coast Ranges follow an 800-mile course and average less than 4,000 feet in height. From the northwest corner of Del Norte County to the  Mexican border,  storms that originate over the Pacific Ocean bring larger amounts of rainfall to the western slopes, especially in the Northern California.  Mount Shasta Volcano in northern Sierra Nevada rises from a bed of lava to over 14,400 feet elevation