The Corners of California

I didn’t realize just how big and how diverse California was until I decided to visit the four corners of the state. The northwest end of the state is just pass Crescent City, wet, lush, a land of redwoods, fishing and wild rivers, like the Smith river near the Oregon border. The next trip was to the northeast corner, near the town of Cedarville. Remarkable, on the edge of the Great Basin, with alkali lakes, fields of green alfalfa, and Cascade-type mountains. It was hard for us in Inverness to get to San Diego, as LA with its congested freeways blocks easy access to the land south of it. But we finally managed to get there and then hiked to the border of Mexico and California, where a ominous fence dramatically made its way into the surf. It was then an easy ride over to the Southeast corner where the border follows what is left of the mighty Colorado River. Water diversions have left only a small river, and the land was sand dunes and desert.

I had never heard of anyone making such a trip, to see the corners of California, and I am really glad I did, because each was so different from each other that it was like visiting four countries. Californians are able to exist in different worlds here. I remember taking my dog to these wildly different ecosystems, one week the Sierras, another time the desert, another weekend to the big city and I thought, this dog is a real expert among dogs, he has seen it all. I don’t know if it improved him, but I felt that he was sophisticated and world-wise. The point remains, there are few areas, and no other state in America where these changes in landscape are so huge. Think of a Texan, and sagebrush (and stupid bushes) comes to mind, but picture a Californian and one thinks of what? Surfer, Cowboy, Jazz Musician, Farmer, Scientist, Backpacker, Suburbanite, Actress, Hippie, the list could be endless.

Take a look at the four corners of the state and think about what they mean as far as your perceptions of the state of California. In the southeast we are trying to keep Mexicans out, in the Northeast, they are desperate for more people, by Crescent City we send the most violent people to Pelican Bay State Prison, and in the Southeast we take what is left of the Rocky Mountain's water and convert it to irrigation for crops in the Imperial Valley, thus creating a man-made oasis. One tries to think of the state in terms of good or bad, but the reality of California goes way beyond those simple concepts. As you will discover in your travels here, this is a place only the gods could fathom.