On an Amtrak Coast Starlight train last week from San Luis Obispo to Oakland...
...the hills looked browner and more parched than I have ever seen them.
A Bay Area environmental worker was giving a long, detailed explanation of California politics and agricultural policies to an Australian tourist who looked like she wanted to kiss him.
There are still occasional patches of green, such as vineyards near Paso Robles...
...and irrigated agricultural fields further north towards the Salinas Valley.
Not far from King City, you also pass through old oil drilling fields that look like leftover sets from the movie There Will Be Blood.
There is a Twilight of Paradise feel to California right now after successive years of drought...
...which has its own bleak beauty.
The Amtrak route, which extends from Seattle to Los Angeles, is definitely the way to see it.
And yet the hills are gold,not Brown.
ReplyDeleteIt is true about the drought's beauty!
ReplyDelete