10 Best Things to Do at the Nixon Library
Nine acres, seventy exhibits, and the farmhouse it all started in
The Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum is not a room full of filing cabinets. It is a nine-acre campus in Yorba Linda — a restored 1912 farmhouse, a replica Oval Office you are allowed to sit in, and around seventy exhibits covering the most turbulent stretch of the American century. Whether you are a history obsessive or a family looking for a worthwhile afternoon, here are the ten things actually worth your time.
The presidential helicopter is no longer on the grounds. On June 29, 2026, the Sikorsky VH-3A "Sea King" — the aircraft that flew Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford, and carried Nixon away from the White House in 1974 — left the campus for a full restoration at the March Field Air Museum in Riverside. It is expected back in 2028 as the centerpiece of a new education pavilion. Most online guides have not caught up yet. Plan accordingly.
Sit at the Oval Office desk
A full-scale replica of Nixon's Oval Office, dressed in the original 1969 décor of California blue and gold — colors Pat Nixon chose herself. Unlike most presidential museums, this one lets you walk behind the desk and sit down for a photo. It is the picture everyone leaves with.
Walk through the birthplace farmhouse
Frank Nixon built this house from a kit in 1912 on the family's citrus ranch; his son Richard was born in it the following January and lived there until 1922. It still stands on its original ground, restored with original furnishings, a few steps from the modern galleries. That contrast — kit farmhouse to Oval Office — is the whole story in one glance.
Face the Watergate gallery
The museum does not flinch here. The gallery traces the scandal from the 1971 Pentagon Papers leak and the formation of "the Plumbers" through to Nixon's post-resignation explanations, with the White House tapes and documentary evidence laid out for you to examine. It is the reason a visit here lands differently than at other presidential libraries.
Take the "Tough Choices" challenge
Step into the role of presidential advisor and make the calls: end the draft, or not? Aid Israel during the Yom Kippur War? You get the benefit of hindsight, which is exactly what makes the exercise uncomfortable — and the best thing in the building for teenagers who think they would have done better.
Stand in the East Room replica
A full-scale recreation of the White House East Room, with crystal chandeliers, marble fireplaces, and gold Italian silk draperies. It doubles as the venue for the library's lectures and public programs — and, on many weekends, for weddings. If a program is running, you may only see it from the doorway.
Stand on the 1960 debate set
The galleries recreate the set of the Kennedy–Nixon televised debates, hulking old camera and all — the moment television rearranged American politics, staged from the losing side. Worth pausing at, because everything that follows in the museum flows from what happened next.
Follow the 1972 trip to China
The diplomacy galleries cover the week in Beijing that reopened relations between the two countries, alongside the domestic legacy that surprises most visitors — the creation of the EPA, the signing of Title IX. This is the part of the story the headlines tend to bury.
Revisit the moon landing
Apollo 11 touched down six months into Nixon's first term, and the space exhibit covers his role and that famous call to the lunar surface — the week he called the most important since the Creation. Reliably the exhibit that wins over kids who did not want to come.
Pay respects at the memorial garden
President and Mrs. Nixon are buried on the grounds, feet from the house he was born in, in the middle of the First Lady's rose garden. It is quiet, well kept, and the best place on the campus to stop and think for ten minutes. Best in spring and early summer, when the roses are out.
Check the special exhibits gallery
The rotating gallery turns over several times a year, so there is usually something on that was not there last visit. Through 2026 the library is running a major America 250 exhibit built around the nation's semiquincentennial, with rare artifacts and interactive displays. Check the calendar before you drive out — it may be the reason to go this month rather than next.
Where to eat before or after
A two-hour visit earns a proper lunch. The Wild Artichoke is a chef-driven kitchen a few minutes from the library gates — relaxed by design, and built for the meal you actually remember. See our guide to dining near the Nixon Library.
Explore our experienceMaking a day of it in Yorba Linda
Go on a weekday morning if you can — the museum opens at 10 and the galleries are quietest in the first hour. Give yourself two hours for the permanent exhibits, three or four if Watergate or Cold War diplomacy is your subject. Then walk the grounds last, when the light is better on the rose garden, and head into town to eat.
If your visit is timed around an evening program — a Candlelight concert, a speaker series, an East Room lecture — the trick is to eat somewhere that can pace a meal around a curtain time. That is a service problem more than a food problem, and it is one we have solved a few hundred times.
The Candlelight menu, for two
$135 per coupleShigoku oysters, hamachi crudo, and our Kaluga caviar mousseline — a shared, intentionally composed menu built to be light, elegant, and finished in time for your event. Chef Andrew Joo's kitchen works to reductions and sourced proteins; the Uni Pasta and the binchotan grill are where regulars start.
Reserve your tableGroups, tours, and private events
The library runs constantly on school field trips, corporate outings, and research visits, which means a lot of groups come off the campus at once looking for somewhere to sit down. We handle those two ways: private dining and group events in our room, or catering brought to your venue anywhere in North Orange County. Either way it is the same kitchen and the same standard.
Planning your visit
How long does a visit to the Nixon Library take?
About two hours for most visitors. Allow three to four if you want to work through the Watergate gallery and the Cold War diplomacy exhibits properly.
Can you still go inside Marine One at the Nixon Library?
No. The helicopter left the campus on June 29, 2026 for a full restoration at March Field Air Museum and is expected to return in 2028, when it will anchor a new education pavilion. Interior tours were suspended before that.
Can you sit at the desk in the Oval Office replica?
Yes — that is the point of it. Visitors are invited behind the desk for a photograph, which is unusual among presidential libraries.
Is the Nixon birthplace included with admission?
Yes. The 1912 farmhouse stands on its original site on the grounds and is included with museum admission.
Where can I eat near the Nixon Library?
The Wild Artichoke is a chef-driven restaurant minutes from the museum in Yorba Linda, serving lunch and dinner, with a shared Candlelight menu for two at $135 per couple for guests timing a meal around an evening program.
A table worth remembering
Two hours of American history, and then somewhere good to sit down. Secure your table.
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