Rita Crane Photography: A Sudden Spring Storm, Old Homesteader's Barn & Fence / Anderson Valley / Mendocino County / Northern California
This valley used to be populated with oak tree forests and redwoods, where American natives lived for centuries. Then early settlers from the East Coast arrived during the Gold Rush of 1848 and took over the land ruthlessly from the original inhabitants. These East Coast settlers planted apple trees, raised sheep, and shamelessly cut the mighty redwood forests. Their boom and bust cycle is pretty much depleted. There are only a very few virgin redwood groves remaining in the Pacific Northwest.
A new industry has emerged: this is Wine country and in the fall it is a colorful feast for the eyes. The grapes have been picked and wineries are busy crushing the year's harvest. Anderson Valley in Mendocino County has become a world class wine region. There is an annual Pinot Festival, celebrating this ancient Old World grape. It thrives in the cool fog that shrouds the valley on hot summer evenings and mornings.
The climate is interesting here, with a mix of Northwest Maritime and Mediterranean. Not a drop of rain falls during the hot dry summers. Vineyards are irrigated by taking water from the hillside streams that are part of the Navarro River watershed.
The old stagecoach road that connected tiny inland towns with the coast still runs through this valley. What used to be a rough dirt track is now a narrow single lane mountain road that winds through hills, sheep country, vineyards, and redwood forests. It is a lovely drive .... uniquely beautiful, rural, and very precious, given the highly populated and developed condition of much of California. Such a remote, quiet, beautiful place is very rare indeed in a state whose population has now approached 40 million residents, and whose economy is 5th in the world if the state were considered its own country.
Rita Crane Photography: A Sudden Spring Storm, Old Homesteader's Barn & Fence / Anderson Valley / Mendocino County / Northern California
This valley used to be populated with oak tree forests and redwoods, where American natives lived for centuries. Then early settlers from the East Coast arrived during the Gold Rush of 1848 and took over the land ruthlessly from the original inhabitants. These East Coast settlers planted apple trees, raised sheep, and shamelessly cut the mighty redwood forests. Their boom and bust cycle is pretty much depleted. There are only a very few virgin redwood groves remaining in the Pacific Northwest.
A new industry has emerged: this is Wine country and in the fall it is a colorful feast for the eyes. The grapes have been picked and wineries are busy crushing the year's harvest. Anderson Valley in Mendocino County has become a world class wine region. There is an annual Pinot Festival, celebrating this ancient Old World grape. It thrives in the cool fog that shrouds the valley on hot summer evenings and mornings.
The climate is interesting here, with a mix of Northwest Maritime and Mediterranean. Not a drop of rain falls during the hot dry summers. Vineyards are irrigated by taking water from the hillside streams that are part of the Navarro River watershed.
The old stagecoach road that connected tiny inland towns with the coast still runs through this valley. What used to be a rough dirt track is now a narrow single lane mountain road that winds through hills, sheep country, vineyards, and redwood forests. It is a lovely drive .... uniquely beautiful, rural, and very precious, given the highly populated and developed condition of much of California. Such a remote, quiet, beautiful place is very rare indeed in a state whose population has now approached 40 million residents, and whose economy is 5th in the world if the state were considered its own country.