Blank California map

What the outline shows

The outline is the state's edge and nothing else. The Pacific coast runs the full length of the west side, with the deep bay of San Francisco, Monterey Bay and the Channel Islands off the south coast. The north edge with Oregon is a straight line on the 42nd parallel. The Nevada border is two straight lines meeting at Lake Tahoe. The southern part of the east edge follows the Colorado River against Arizona, and the Mexican border is a single straight line to the coast at San Diego. No county lines or rivers are drawn inside. Capital adds one dot at Sacramento; many students expect the dot to fall on Los Angeles or San Francisco and are surprised to find it inland in the Central Valley.

Portrait or landscape

California is about 770 miles long and at most about 250 miles wide, so the state is three times taller than it is wide. Print in portrait. Even in portrait the outline occupies only the middle of the sheet, which leaves room on either side for labels. Landscape wastes more than half the page. If you only need Southern California, zoom the map to the region south of Point Conception before printing; that section is wider than tall and fits landscape.

Five classroom exercises

1. Draw the Sierra Nevada as a long ridge down the east side and mark Mount Whitney; then shade the Central Valley between the Sierra and the coastal ranges.
2. Trace the Sacramento River flowing south and the San Joaquin flowing north, meeting in the Delta and leaving through San Francisco Bay.
3. Mark the point where the two straight Nevada border lines meet at Lake Tahoe, and explain that one runs along 120°W and the other angles to the Colorado River.
4. Locate Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Fresno and Sacramento and rank them by 2020 population using the state page as answer key.
5. Shade the Mojave Desert in the southeast and mark Death Valley; measure on the map how close it is to Mount Whitney (about 85 miles).

How to recognise the California outline

• A long, curved shape like a bent arm, concave toward the Pacific.
• A straight top edge and a straight upper-right edge that turns sharply at Lake Tahoe.
• San Francisco Bay: a notch in the coast about a third of the way down.
• A straight bottom edge (the Mexican border) angled slightly down toward the sea.
• The coast bends east at Point Conception, so the south coast faces south rather than west.

Answer key and related maps

• California map — the labeled version with capital, cities and borders; use it as the answer key.
• Printable California map — the same outline with cities, county lines and the capital printed on.
• California county map — all 58 counties with their seats.
• Sacramento — the capital, chosen over both big coastal cities.
• Neighbours: Oregon, Nevada, Arizona blank maps.
• Sierra Nevada, Mojave Desert and US coastlines.
• All blank state maps and the printable US maps index.