Map of California with Cities, Counties and Roads Network

How to Use This Map

This map of California with cities, counties, and roads is already large enough to read directly on your desktop. To see a full-screen zoom view on a phone or tablet, tap the map image (or tap the Zoom Map label above the image). Scan by shading by county first, meaning the 58 counties are in various colored blocks with each county’s seat in bold. Use the interstate system and the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Colorado rivers for quick orientation. Note that the light road layer is intentionally minimal and not designed for turn-by-turn directions using interstate (I-5, I-80, I-10, I-15). If you want a specific city or county, the full county and seat index and FAQ’s lower on this page are the quickest route to click straight to it.

Explore California's Lively Cities and Distinct Counties with a Map

Map of California, California map with cities, counties, and roads network. California stretches from the Oregon line in the north to Mexico at Tijuana in the south, with the Pacific Ocean to the west and Nevada plus Arizona to the east. The map shows 58 counties as color blocks, cities with a web of interstates and state highways linking cities that many travelers know by name: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Redding, Eureka, and more. Blue water bodies such as Lake Tahoe, Mono Lake, Clear Lake, the Salton Sea, and the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta are your hydrologic anchors. Capital: Sacramento (Sacramento County). Largest county by land area: San Bernardino County, about 20,057 square miles — the largest county in the contiguous United States. Largest county by population: Los Angeles County. Least populous county: Sierra County. Total state area: approximately 155,779 square miles. Largest cities by population: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno, Sacramento, Long Beach, Oakland, Bakersfield, and Anaheim.

Complete county and seat index

Alameda–Oakland; Alpine–Markleeville; Amador–Jackson; Butte–Oroville; Calaveras–San Andreas; Colusa–Colusa; Contra Costa–Martinez; Del Norte–Crescent City; El Dorado–Placerville; Fresno–Fresno; Glenn–Willows; Humboldt–Eureka; Imperial–El Centro; Inyo–Independence; Kern–Bakersfield; Kings–Hanford; Lake–Lakeport; Lassen–Susanville; Los Angeles–Los Angeles; Madera–Madera; Marin–San Rafael; Mariposa–Mariposa; Mendocino–Ukiah; Merced–Merced; Modoc–Alturas; Mono–Bridgeport; Monterey–Salinas; Napa–Napa; Nevada–Nevada City; Orange–Santa Ana; Placer–Auburn; Plumas–Quincy; Riverside–Riverside; Sacramento–Sacramento; San Benito–Hollister; San Bernardino–San Bernardino; San Diego–San Diego; San Francisco–San Francisco; San Joaquin–Stockton; San Luis Obispo–San Luis Obispo; San Mateo–Redwood City; Santa Barbara–Santa Barbara; Santa Clara–San Jose; Santa Cruz–Santa Cruz; Shasta–Redding; Sierra–Downieville; Siskiyou–Yreka; Solano–Fairfield; Sonoma–Santa Rosa; Stanislaus–Modesto; Sutter–Yuba City; Tehama–Red Bluff; Trinity–Weaverville; Tulare–Visalia; Tuolumne–Sonora; Ventura–Ventura; Yolo–Woodland; Yuba–Marysville.

Physical geography (quick orientation)

On this map, the Sierra Nevada (east), the Coast Ranges (west), the Central Valley (interior trough), and the Mojave and Colorado deserts (southeast) double as landmarks for finding counties quickly, with the Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Colorado rivers as navigation lines. For elevation, terrain, and land-cover detail, see our Physical Map of California.

Climate (quick note)

California spans a Mediterranean climate along the coast, a hot desert climate in the southeast, and an alpine climate at higher Sierra Nevada elevations. For a full seasonal and biome breakdown, see our Physical Map of California.

Northern border: Del Norte to Modoc

Start at the top left, where rugged coast meets Oregon. Del Norte County holds Crescent City at a crescent harbor. Slide south into Humboldt County with Eureka and Arcata tucked behind spits and lagoons. Inland, forested Trinity County shows Weaverville along mountain roads. At the far north interior, the map labels Siskiyou County with Yreka on the I-5 corridor and Mount Shasta region near Weed and Dunsmuir. The blue line of the Klamath River slices west to the sea.

Move east along the Oregon line, and you will see Modoc County with Alturas and a lattice of high-desert lakes and marshes. South of that is Lassen County and Susanville, plus the blue oval of Eagle Lake. These two counties are where California turns from coastal forests to Great Basin sage country.

Shasta Cascade core

The center north is dominated by Shasta County, with Redding under the shadow of the Cascade Range. West and south are Tehama (Red Bluff), Glenn (Willows), and Butte (Chico, Oroville). To the east, you will pick out Plumas County with Quincy, Lassen again to the north, and Sierra County with Downieville along high river canyons. These labels tell you where passes cross into the Sierra Nevada. The Feather River system appears as a set of blue squiggles and reservoirs feeding the Valley.

Lake and wine country to the coast

Slide west to the North Coast Ranges. Mendocino County shows Ukiah inland and the scenic coast ribbon highway. North of San Francisco, Sonoma County with Santa Rosa and Petaluma, Napa County with Napa, and Marin County with headlands above the Golden Gate form California’s classic wine and coast belt. Lake County is hard to miss because of the large blue saucer of Clear Lake with Lakeport on its shore.

Sacramento Valley

Drop into the vast, green Sacramento Valley. Colusa, Yolo, Sutter, and Yuba counties cluster around the lower Feather and Sacramento Rivers. Woodland, Davis, Yuba City, Marysville, and Colusa are arrayed in a grid of canals and roads that hint at the region’s rice and orchard agriculture. At the Valley’s heart is Sacramento County with the capital city Sacramento, sitting where the American River joins the Sacramento River. Look at the road star here: I-5 runs north-south, I-80 runs west-east toward Davis and Vacaville, and US-50 slices east toward the Sierra.

Bay Area and the Northern Delta

At the river’s mouth, the land fractures into channels that your map shades as water and wetlands. That is the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, which feeds San Francisco Bay. Around the Bay you can read a ring of counties: Solano with Vallejo and Fairfield, Contra Costa with Richmond, Martinez, Concord, Walnut Creek, Alameda with Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Hayward, San Mateo with a ladder of Peninsula cities from Daly City and San Mateo to Redwood City, Santa Clara County with San Jose, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Cupertino, and Gilroy, San Francisco city-county at the tip, and Marin across the Golden Gate. Bridges are implied by highway lines that leap from shoreline to shoreline.

Sierra Nevada crest line

From the foothills east of Sacramento, scan upslope through a column of gold-rush counties: El Dorado (Placerville), Amador (Jackson), Calaveras (San Andreas), Tuolumne (Sonora), Mariposa (Mariposa), and Placer to the north with Auburn. At the crest, you find Lake Tahoe straddling the border of California and Nevada near Carson City and Reno. South along the crest sit Alpine, Mono with the striking blue of Mono Lake, and Inyo County with Bishop, Lone Pine, and the dry basin of Owens Lake in the Owens Valley. The eastern Sierra wall is crisp on the map because towns cling to the long north-south highway that runs under the peaks.

San Joaquin Valley

Back on the floor of the state, the San Joaquin Valley runs from Stockton in San Joaquin County through Stanislaus (Modesto), Merced (Merced), Madera, Fresno (Fresno, Clovis), Kings (Hanford), and Tulare (Visalia) to Kern County with Bakersfield. Blue threads, such as the San Joaquin River, Kings River, and Tulare Basin sloughs, illustrate how irrigation and drainage systems organize the farmland. Interstates I-5 and CA-99 run parallel north-south; the map draws them as double orange lines that meet at big cities. East-side state routes climb into national park gateways.

Central Coast

Follow the Pacific edge from San Mateo and Santa Cruz into Monterey County with Monterey, Salinas, and King City. South of the Big Sur cliffs, you will meet San Luis Obispo County with San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, and Paso Robles. Next are Santa Barbara County with Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Lompoc, and Goleta, then Ventura County with Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, and Thousand Oaks. The map dots the Channel Islands offshore. These coastal counties lie in the Coast Ranges and Transverse Ranges, which you can infer by the west-east orientation of valleys around Santa Barbara and Ventura.

Los Angeles Basin and Inland Empire

Now read the dense label cluster of Los Angeles County, which includes Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Burbank, Torrance, Pomona, and Lancaster in the Antelope Valley. To the southeast is Orange County, home to Anaheim, Santa Ana, Irvine, and coastal cities such as Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, and Laguna Beach. Inland spreads Riverside County and San Bernardino County. On your sheet, you can follow Riverside, Corona, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indio, Temecula, and in San Bernardino, the high-desert cities of Victorville, Barstow, Hesperia, and the old Route 66 corridor. Interstates I-5, I-10, I-15, I-405, I-210, I-605, CA-91, US-101, and CA-1 form a web that wraps the basin and pierces mountain passes.

Deserts and the Salton Sea

Trace the pale interior east of the mountains. The Mojave Desert spreads across San Bernardino and Kern counties, with long straight highways and sparse labels. Farther south, the Colorado Desert occupies Imperial County, centered on the large blue Salton Sea with Brawley, El Centro, and Calexico near the Mexico line by Mexicali. The Colorado River marks the Arizona border and feeds irrigation canals that your map shows as fine blue lines.

San Diego and the border

Finally, the map’s bottom left corner is San Diego County with the cities of San Diego, La Jolla, Chula Vista, Oceanside, Escondido, and El Cajon. I-5 and I-15 are the two big north-south trunks out of San Diego. You can watch terrain shift from coastal mesas to inland mountains to desert in a short distance, which is why the road lines kink sharply as they cross passes.

Using the California Map For Travel, Study, and Planning

Transportation skeleton you can follow with one finger

1. I-5 corridor: start at the Oregon line near Yreka, run through Redding, Red Bluff, Willows, Woodland and Sacramento, then alongside the San Joaquin Valley by Stockton, Modesto, Merced, Los Banos turnoff, Madera, Fresno bypass, Visalia vicinity, Bakersfield, over the Grapevine into Los Angeles County, then down the coast past Anaheim, Santa Ana, San Clemente, and San Diego to the border.

2. US-101 and CA-1 coast chain: pick it up at Crescent City, trace through Eureka, Fort Bragg area, Santa Rosa, Petaluma, San Rafael, San Francisco, San Mateo coast towns, Santa Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Oxnard, Malibu, Santa Monica, Los Angeles, and south to Oceanside and San Diego.

3. I-80 and US-50 to the Sierra: from San Francisco and Oakland, I-80 runs past Berkeley, Vallejo, Fairfield, Davis, Sacramento, Roseville, Auburn, and up to Lake Tahoe and Reno. US-50 splits at Sacramento and climbs through Placerville to South Lake Tahoe.

4. I-15 Desert Link: from San Diego and Los Angeles through San Bernardino, Victorville, Barstow, and northeast to Las Vegas.

5. I-10 and I-8 east-west routes: I-10 crosses from Santa Monica Bay past Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Palm Springs, Blythe, then to Arizona. I-8 branches from San Diego to Yuma along the border.

County clusters and why they matter

• Bay Area ring: dense counties around the Bay organize civic and economic life around bridges that you can infer from highway jumps.

• Valley ribbon: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern align in a near-perfect north-south agricultural belt.

• Northeast quad: Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, and Shasta form a high-elevation frontier of timber and rangeland.

• Southern metro spread: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and Imperial make a connected mega-region from the ocean to the desert.

Neighboring states and cross-border cues

• Oregon to the north, with the Medford corridor implied by roads heading north from Yreka and Redding.

• Nevada to the east, with Reno, Carson City, Las Vegas, and a patchwork of basins and lakes that align with passes on the California side.

• Arizona to the southeast beyond the Colorado River, with Yuma and Lake Havasu corridor accessible via I-10 and I-8.

• Mexico is visible on the map at Tijuana and Mexicali, located south of San Diego and Calexico.

Classroom and field activities using the sheet

• Watershed tracing: sketch the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers to the Delta, then follow the aqueduct and canal symbols into Southern California.

• Relief versus settlement: contrast curvy mountain highways near Sonora and Auburn with the grid in Fresno or Hanford.

• Climate transect: drive from the San Diego coast to Borrego Springs, marking how the map shows a short cross-section from marine to desert.

• County seat scavenger: find every county seat that sits beside a river or Bay: Sacramento, Stockton, Martinez, San Rafael, San Jose on a valley floor, San Diego on a harbor.

Practical travel patterns the map reveals

• Overnight arcs: San Francisco to Monterey to San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara is a coast chain that balances driving time with scenic stops.

• National park gateways: use Mariposa and Oakhurst for Yosemite approaches, Three Rivers and Visalia for Sequoia approaches, Lone Pine for eastern Sierra trailheads.

• Freight corridors, including I-5 and CA-99, move goods through the Valley. I-80 and US-50 carry mountain freight, which is why you see larger towns at foothill break-in-slope points such as Auburn and Placerville.

• Desert timing: the long stretches on I-15, I-40 spur roads, and I-8 require fuel planning that you can gauge by the wide gaps between labeled towns like Barstow and the Needles area off-map east.