Traveling with a fourth grader is never easy; making it both educational and fun is a whole other challenge.

Jamie Simons, a year-round resident of a national park, reports on her journey through California’s state parks, where she discovered great value and even better family experiences.

I know the buzz these days is all about the national parks and since we live in Yosemite National Park year round I can attest to at least this park’s beauty.

But there are other places, often overlooked, that offer unique and spectacular experiences, are rarely crowded, have low entrance fees and are perfect destinations for the three-day holidays and school breaks that mark the calendar from now until summer.

What are they? America’s other crown jewels—found in every state in the union—the national collection of state parks and historic sites.

Working with the Internet, it’s easy to put together a trip that will have you, your kids and anyone else with a heart for exploration out on the road and, interestingly, probably not too far from home.

Our daughter is in fourth grade, and her social studies curriculum is state history. Our goal this year has been to take her to as many state historic parks as possible.

Since we live in Yosemite National Park and are surrounded by the foothills that played host to the Gold Rush, we recently visited the California State Historic Railroad Museum in the capital city of Sacramento, then traveled on to Railtown 1897 State Historic Park right outside the charming and beautifully preserved town of Jamestown.

Hundreds of films and TV shows were shot on the historic trains in this park—everything from High Noon to Petticoat Junction. Plan your day right and you can ride aboard the same trains that played host to Grace Kelly and Gary Cooper, the Marx Brothers and the cast of Little House on the Prairie.

After the trains, we headed down the road a piece and discovered our own gold nugget—Columbia State Historic Park. A complete Gold Rush town right down to the working livery stables, the pharmacy, the original school and the yum-delicious candy store, Columbia State Park uses living history to bring the Gold Rush days back to life (sans dancing girls and poker games unless you go at the end of March for Columbia’s birthday celebration).

Our daughter’s favorite stops were at the bowling alley where she got to play the old-fashioned way (a combination of gravity and setting up your own pins), playing dress up 1850s style and stopping for a sarsaparilla soda at one of the many historic-style eateries. With three hotels and any number of restaurants, it’s easy to use Columbia as a home base to explore the gorgeous Sierra Nevada foothills that surround the park.

Columbia was new to us, but on other trips we’ve hiked through carpets of wildflowers at Anza-Borrego State Park near San Diego, walked through towering redwoods at Muir Woods State Park outside San Francisco and watched the bellowing bull seal elephants at Ano Nuevo State Park just below Santa Cruz.

All of them were amazing, but for my money there is no finer collection of state park wonders than along California’s central coast from Monterey to San Simeon.

Learn more in our California Travel section

Too expensive you say? Then you don’t know about Asilomar State Conference Grounds. The name confuses people. If it’s a conference ground, can anyone book a room there? They can and they should.

There are 107 acres of beachfront property tucked between the town of Pacific Grove and the high-priced hotels of Pebble Beach, Asilomar boasts superb architecture by Julia Morgan of Hearst Castle fame, a dining room that features local, organic, sustainable cuisine (breakfast is included in the room price and all meals are served family style), and easy access to some of the area’s best-loved attractions such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Pacific Grove’s Monarch Butterfly Preserve.

It’s true that 90 percent of Asilomar’s business comes from conference groups but whatever rooms they don’t sell are reserved for the public. In late March, a room will run $135 per night, including breakfast for three. To get such a deep discount, book in advance for a 20 percent prepaid discount and travel mid-week.

Best of all, this place is ideal for families traveling together. After dinner (only two entrees are served, one vegetarian, one not—a plus with kids), families can all rest and relax in the main lodge with its pool tables, piano, and large, overstuffed chairs fronting a roaring fire.

A trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium is a must but my family would never consider a trip to the area without visiting the breathtaking Point Lobos State Park just south of Carmel. Standing on its cliffs, surrounded by orange-tinged cypress trees that bend to the ground to form “rooms” that seem enchanted, it is not unusual to see pods of whales, seals, sea lions, cormorants, pelicans, otters and dolphins in the sea below. The artist Francis McComas called Point Lobos “The greatest meeting of land and water in the world.”

Apparently, the state of California agreed and saved it for future generations along with countless other coastal beauties, the most famous of which areAndrew Molera State Beach, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Beach and 5 miles inland, Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. All of them offer spectacular views, great hiking, campsites and, in the case of Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park, comfortable lodging at the Big Sur Lodge.

Traveling south, it’s impossible to miss San Simeon perched high atop a hill that overlooks the ocean and offered William Randolph Hearst a 360-degree view of all he owned. Working with Julia Morgan over the course of 30 years, Hearst transformed a coastal hilltop into his vision of European majesty. NowHearst Castle State Park, it’s open to all and with a reservation, definitely worth the trip, if only to try and understand the inner workings of Hearst’s mind. (His mind inspired a movie, why not a road trip?)

Why not indeed? This year we also hope to visit Crystal Cove State Park in Orange County. Spring break will see us at the state parks along the Central Coast. With 278 parks in California’s system, we still have a lot of exploring to do.

I wonder what the fifth-grade curriculum involves?

To find out more about California State Parks, visit www.parks.ca.gov. To learn about state parks near your home, visit www.stateparks.com.

By Jamie Simons for PeterGreenberg.com. Jamie Simons is a freelance writer based in Yosemite National Park, California.

Related links on PeterGreenberg.com:

• Unusual Autumn Travel: California’s Central Coast
• Hidden Gems: California
• California Travel section
• Family Travel section
• National Parks section