Central Valley

We have moved on to Bakersfield. We expected a fair bit of things to entice visitors, but it appears we may have been optimistic. We allotted more time than it looks like we will need now that we have arrived. I had allowed for a day to explore the old downtown area and maybe take in some of the historic buildings. Well, we cruised downtown after parking and hooking up Colectiva, and about 10 minutes later we were done – a fair bit disappointing.  The Fox Theater opened on Christmas Day in 1930. The 1500 seat grand theater from those early times looks like it would be fun to poke through, but unfortunately it is not open for touring.

I also had allotted a couple of days to bike the Kern River Parkway, with over 30 miles of paved and groomed trails winding its way through town along the banks of the Kern River. Two issues with that – first, it is supposed to rain the entire time we are here. Second, here is the pleasant Kern River basin. Since the rain was the only water anywhere in sight, our plans for pleasant biking disappeared in an instant!

We did manage to take in some interesting spots taking the edge off our initial impressions. About 30 miles southeast of Bakersfield in the remote community of Keene California is the Caesar Chavez National Monument. We learned about Chavez and is relentless efforts to get a livable wage for agricultural workers in one of the richest agricultural valleys in the country. The Monument is at the compound that Chavez developed to help bring strength to his movement.

Chavez had a history of activism for Latino civil rights. In 1962 he parted with his previous affiliations and formed what became to be known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). His close association with a Jewish film producer in LA garnered his interest in the Israeli Kibbutz concept, where large numbers of families live together and cumulate their individual strengths to apply their group power to accomplish more.

He set out on a mission with local help to find such a location. He identified an abandoned county owned TB facility in Keene that he believed would be perfect for his intended plans. He had already angered local movers and shakers with his labor movements, so he knew he could not be successful in securing the property. He enlisted his confident to make the offer, win the property, and then turned it over to Chavez. The county was so enraged when they learned of the transaction that they refused to cash the checks Chavez sent them monthly for the contract on the acquisition. After several years the county relented and began accepting the payments.

In an interesting twist of fate, Chavez’s wife had been forcibly restrained in that very same TB facility as a small child, and had horrific memories. She refused to move there with him as he established his American version of a Kibbutz and further organize his movement. Ultimately she relented as she witnessed him giving his all for the cause, and decided she needed to do so as well, and moved to LePaz. His highly successful Grape Strikes in the mid-60’s established not only a fairer wage structure but also introduced worker health and safety innovations that helped make this back breaking work more bearable.

Chavez passed of natural causes in 1993 and is buried at the Monument. His wife, Helen, still lives at LePaz and is gracious enough to share the Chavez Center with the world. The museum on his life and activism is well done, and the film spectacular. This is well worth the visit if you are ever in the area.

When we went to the Monument we arrived a bit early, so we just drove around the area a bit. Because we did we stumbled on the Tehachapi Loop – what a find! In 1874 when Collis Huntington was working feverishly to complete the second transcontinental rail line along a more moderate southern route, his folk engineered this nearly ¾ mile long helix to attack a portion of the grade near Tehachapi California that was too steep for rail traffic. To deal with the grade, a spiral of track was built which loops over itself, so tight that it only requires a length of 85 cars for the engines to be passing directly over the rear of the train going under the initial tunnel. The engineering was so revolutionary at that time that it was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark, and has since been established as a California Historical Landmark (#508). Supposedly this line remains one of the most active rail lines in the world with often over 40 trains passing through here a day.

We can’t dispute that claim. As we were heading back toward Bakersfield, Robin spotted a train chugging up the grade. So, we headed back to the overlook to take in the spectacle. If it only takes 85 cars to have the engines pass over the rear of the train, the one we witnessed must have been well over 100 cars long. As we marveled at the engineering feet, the engines rolled over the tunnel and out of sight many minutes before the pusher engine at the end of the train even came into sight. In all we estimate that it may have taken 20 minutes for the entire train to roll over itself.

About an hour and a half west of Bakersfield is Carrizo Plain National Monument, perhaps the most remote Monument with the least infrastructure in the system (except maybe some in Alaska that have no roads at all.) The Carrizo Plain lies between the Temblor Range and the Caliente Range. Long ago the plain was settled and farmed, but as the amount of rain in the valley would not support emerging large scale farming techniques, the valley was eventually abandoned by nearly all settlers.

The San Andreas Fault runs along the base of the Temblor Range on the east edge of the plain. One of the unique features of the Monument is Soda Lake. This was an actual lake back in the Pleistocene era. During heavy rains the water does pool up in parts of the basin. But with no outflow, the alkali salts just sit in the basin, in the heavier areas up to a half a foot thick. The snowy white image of the lake really catches your eye.

Near the lake is painted rock. The formation is a horseshoe shaped smooth sandstone formation about 250 feet across and 50 feet high. Scientists estimate that the Carrizo Plain and this rock formation were occupied as early as 2,000 years BC.

The inside of the horseshoe formation provided overhanging rock that provided shelter for the Chumash people. You can be sure the Chumash actually lived here because there are many grinding bowls underneath the overhanging rock formations. Also there is black soot on the ceiling of the overhangs that would have been caused by the cooking and heating fires, which may have also been used for evening lighting.

The entire interior of the horseshoe is riddled with petroglyphs. Although significantly damaged prior to the BLM taking control and securing the site, the centuries old rock paintings are still visible and interesting. The nature of the paintings themselves is very different from any we have ever seen before.

Being managed by the BLM, there is virtually no infrastructure here. There is an education center in the old Goodwin ranch house now part of the monument. But the center is not open during the week, and nobody was there over the New Year weekend, so we had to book our self-guided tour on the recreation.gov website. Once booked, we printed off the confirmation the site gave us, and headed the hour and a half or so to the Monument.

When arrived there was a locked gate with a keypad. We could see Painted Rock in the distance, but could not get through the gate with the Equinox. We scoured the printed confirmation and no gate code was printed on it. So, since we could actually see it, we headed out on foot. Turns out it was over 7 miles to hike out, hike around, and hike back to where we parked. Recreation.gov charged us a fee to use the site to get our tour reserved, and then neglected to provide us the gate code – thanks Obama! Oh well, the exercise was good for us.

On the way back we stopped to see the lone Button willow tree that is a California historic site. This tree, now located in the town of the same name, was a very distinguishable way marker on an ancient native east/west trail through southern California. Because it was the only tree in many miles, it became a gathering place for the natives on the trail, which eventually led to the establishment of the town of Button Willow. It is not highly impressive, but we enjoyed seeing it once we figured out it was here.

We also stopped at the Tule Elk State Nature Preserve not far from Button Willow. Hundreds of thousands of Tule Elk roamed the Central Valley when it was first settled. Tule Elk were named after the Tule they eat, a thick grass like plant that grows in the marshes of the Central Valley. Heavy hunting was thought to drive the herds to extinction by 1870. However in 1874 a sole surviving breeding pair was discovered in the marshes of Buena Vista Lake, and under protection, the herds now manage around 4,000. Sadly the Preserve was under reconstruction which was supposed to be done by the first of the year. Unfortunately they were behind schedule and the park remained unopened, so we had to view from the road only.

Interesting connections – Buena Vista Lake was created by the flow of the Kern River. Of course we know that the Kern River (or Kern Meadow as we like to call it) is dry, and sadly the Buena Vista Lake is now a dry lakebed as well. Good thing they found that elk pair in 1874! There is no Tule growing anywhere near the Kern River these days.

So maybe I was a bit quick to indicate there was not a lot to do here.

Talk to you soon!