HikeArizona.COM

I drove to Sacramento over the weekend. It's actually shorter to go thru Los Angeles then up interstate 5.

For those of us who like to complain about the dirty air in Phoenix, Let me say this: The Haze cloud that hangs over LA started 140 miles away, in Palm springs! It gets worse as you get closer to the city. It was so bad that you cannot even see the beautiful mountians that are right along the hiway. It was like driving in fog. It was the same way on the return trip, as soon as you get into the desert, the air clears up.

I did this trip 2 weekends in a row and it was the same story.

North of LA there was an area of apparent recent fire activity, the ground was black and almost completely void of all things green and alive for many miles. You could see, however that it was recovering. It will take many years, but the earth has a way of bringing itself back to life.

This Forest however will probably NEVER recover.

A perfect example of mans intervention. I realize the need for alternate power sources, but it was an eyesore to say the least.

that brown haze that hovers over the city is one of the biggest reasons that i did not go to school out there in california. i remember stepping off the plane on one of my campus visits and just looking at that nastiness made me begin to wheeze!

i cant wait until the plans for the light rail in phoenix actually becomes a reality. hopefully then things will turn around and become at least a bit better.

I'm looking forward to the day we all drive hovercraft that run off the hydrogen and oxygen extracted from water. Cheap fuel, no emissions!
Just like the Jetsons!

San Bernadino / Riverside is about as bad as bad gets visual wise

Personally I find the windmill field intriguing. Not in the sense that I desire to have a majority of the open terrain plotted with windmills... but the wind patterns are cool. You can literally watch the wind.

I've always wondered how many homes each windmill supports. In Oklahoma we lived on a lake. My parents looked into buying a windmill but never did. Similar design but smaller, those powered about 4 average sized homes. You actually sold electricty to the power company. It sure would be nice to get a check rather than send a check.

It's hard to find beauty in that stretch of I10. If you have time next visit, try and pull off a side road or find some areas to explore. Their aren't any in California. I love the town of Julian California, but I've spent hours trying to fins a plave to just pull of the road to sit. California is all about gates, fences, and no tresspasing signs.

I hiked right through the middle of the Mesa Wind Farm (where CW's were taken) on my PCT hike. The guidebook called this one of the most unattractive stretches of the trail. I do remember the noise and litter that spread out on either side of I-10. However, right next to a gate leading into the wind farm, I ran into a pair of graduate students. They gave me a cookie and told me about what they were doing in the area. Apparently that piece of land is home to a large population of desert tortoises. They told me to keep an eye peeled for them.

A quarter-mile later I reached a small desert pass, still within site of I-10.



The entire backside of that pass was absolutely draped with flowers of every color. I saw many desert areas on the PCT, but none was as flower-filled as that short, "ugly" stretch of trail near I-10. Even in the face of industrialization, nature florishes.

This area isn't one of the most attractive areas in the world, from most peoples point of view from the road. I gues it all depends on how you look at it. This area has always interested myself as well. It's very unusual to see things like that. The simplest things can get interesting after a few hours on the road.

I would be interested in finding out if this is a tortise haven or not. It would sure be cool to be there in the mating season. Nothing but the sound of the wind, the windmills and the clunk of tortise fights.

Some of these things you only get to see on television.

GTG

Cakewalk wrote:
This Forest however will probably NEVER recover.

Them be some mighty strange looking trees there young feller. What happened to all the leaves?

Seriously - I agree - eye-sore to the extreme. The latest talk of wind farms is building artificial islands off shore (lke 10+ miles offshore) - the wind is stronger on a more consistent basis on the ocean, initial development is more expensive, but the return is far cheaper than coal or gas power. Denmark has a bunch of them already.