This is around the 3,600 foot level of Highway 18 going up into the mountains. It climbs higher and higher, eventually going all the way up into Big Bear, elevation 7,000 feet plus, then descending down the "back side" into Lucerne Valley, which is in the Upper Mojave Desert. If you look closely (left click on the photo to enlarge it) you can see where the highway winds up higher by looking for the light-colored beige areas where parts of the mountainside were blown away to create the highway. It is a marvel of human ingenuity, I suppose, and I'm guilty of using it frequently, but I wish they had not kept "improving" it. It was only a one lane dirt logging road when it was first built, and that made it very hard to get up here. Now, it's four lanes wide. Well, up to the Crestline Bridge turnoff, anyway. After that, it's only two lanes wide, but still....
(I took this photo in May of 2008).
I understand what you're saying. Although very small by comparison, for years, there was a narrow path leading into the beach down the road from me. It was just wide enough to get a car through if one wanted. So, there were usually old tire tracks with grass growing in the middle. I loved walking through there. Then council decided to make it into a large parking lot. The charm has disappeared. They call it progress.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same as you and oldcrow, i would love to live somewhere more remote!
ReplyDeleteAnd, the wildlife lose more and more of their territory...
ReplyDeleteIt happens here too.
There seems to be no end to "progress".