By the time I crossed the California border on my way from Washington to the Sacramento area just before Thanksgiving, it was already dark, so I unfortunately missed seeing all the Northern California views, including Mount Shasta and any red woods I would have been driving through. Thankfully, I was still treated with some pretty views, and realized just how much farmland is scattered throughout this massive state on my last two hours of the journey the next morning.
Most of the northern half of the state was rural countryside, mostly farmland and grassy fields, for miles and miles and miles. All of the photos in this post are from the area I stayed, just outside the tiny town of Esparto, not to far from Woodland, just a bit northwest of Sacramento in the middle of the Sacramento Valley, which is a really huge valley, filled with endless miles of more farmland.
I was headed to California to escape a less-than-ideal situation in Washington where I had been staying, to help an old friend out with stuff around his property, mainly helping to renovate an old dilapidated shed and make it a usable chicken coop. As you can see below, it was in pretty poor shape at the beginning, but after building two new doors, finishing the roof, and adding some tin siding where the old barn wood was completely falling off, it was probably about 90% of the way completed by the time I left, and hopefully housing some laying hens soon. It’s amazing how much can be done with salvaged materials laying around an old country property!
What I was probably most surprised with, being my first time in California ever, was the number and variety of trees, with endless rows of almond trees covering acres of almond farms being a common sight.
I saw just about every type of tree imaginable, from oaks and pines and cedars to palm trees to fruit trees of all variety’s - including the whole citrus family, mango trees, different nut trees, apple and pomegranate trees, and I even saw a cluster of banana trees in someone’s yard in the middle of Esparto which surprised me, considering it freezes at least a few times every winter.
Coming out of one the worst California droughts in recorded history with the record lowest rainfall for the year in some areas, the land was incredibly dry and brown. During my stay there over the course of December there was a decent amount of rain, and by the time I left on New Year’s the grass was just starting to turn green. Another surprise, that a California winter is akin to springtime in the Rocky Mountains.
There was an abundant variety of plant life of all types, with prickly pear cactus plants decorating people’s yards everywhere I went. Below is just one example from one of my daily bike rides, the cactus in front of a small grove of lemon trees.
Below you can see a flowering prickly pear under a ponderosa pine and another one behind a flowering rose bush covered in red roses:
Orange trees were also a common sight, and the tree and grass covered rolling hills made for some beautiful sunsets.
There were also plenty of deer, wild turkeys and even a small flock of peacocks in the area, my personal favorite, that made their rounds through the yard, right in front of the house on a few early mornings...
And plenty of open field space to play fetch with Dakota, a favorite border collie past time.
But with the new year it was time for a new adventure on my journey, this time continuing south into central California to a property in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas where I’m currently staying, surrounded by incredible scenery that blew my mind - but photos of this cool, unique place will have to wait for another post...