Greater Bakersfield Convention and Visitors Bureau 515 Truxton Ave. Bakersfield, CA 93301 (661) 325-5051 Population 174820 Time Zone Pacific Latitude/Longitude 35.37° /-119.01° Today's Forecast HIGH: 68 LOW: 47

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Attractions

A desert city surrounded by oil derricks and farm fields, Bakersfield serves as a gateway to the southern San Joaquin Valley's scenic landscape while offering a few interesting attractions of its own. Chief among them is CALM, the California Living Museum -- zoo, natural history museum, and botanical garden all rolled into one. Specializing in plants and animals native to the state, the museum features a black bear grotto, aviary, reptile house, mammal round, and contact area.

The Kern County Museum has assembled 56 historic buildings on its 16-acre site. Artifacts and hands-on exhibits illustrate the history of Bakersfield and surrounding Kern County. The Lori Brock Children's Discovery Center is also located on the grounds.

Exhibits at the Bakersfield Museum of Art change every six weeks or so and feature paintings, sculpture, fiber arts, and photography. At the Buena Vista Museum of Natural History, you can see artifacts from the Yokuts tribe of Native Americans plus a wealth of fossils representing life forms from the Miocene Epoch.

Rabobank Arena, Theatre and Convention Center is the place to go for top-name music concerts, sports events, and performances by the Bakersfield Symphony. The restored Fox Theatre also offers big-time pop/rock concerts. Sports fans in Bakersfield can sit back and relax, safe in the knowledge that there will always be a game to go to or a race to watch. Class A affiliates of the Texas Rangers, the Bakersfield Blaze play their California League opponents at venerable Sam Lynn Ballpark. Rabobank Arena hosts the Blitz of Arena Football 2 and the skating Condors of the ECHL. NHRA-sanctioned drag racing takes place on the quarter-mile track at Famoso Raceway.

Shoppers who come to Bakersfield will find lots of antique shopping in the converted bungalows along Antique Row. In the surrounding countryside, Lake Isabella is one of California's largest manmade reservoirs. Fort Tejon, an 1854 military post in the Tehachapi Mountains, once quartered the U.S. Army's most unusual unit -- the First Dragoons and Camel Corps. See a rare species of tiny elk that once dominated California's Central Valley at the Tule Elk State Reserve. With the Kern River descending from the nearby Sierra Nevada, opportunities for whitewater rafting abound.

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