Thanks, as always, for the comments!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sterlippo1
Great small town that i have visited but a long time ago and to the poster above, xzmattzx...., you need to do more of Northern California , it's beauty is unsurpassed in the States, IMO and i would call the Bay Area as the Gateway to Northern California and what's south of it is considered Central California and maybe the dividing line to Southern California would be Santa Barbara but a Calif native can correct me on that if incorrect
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xzmattzx
Nice pictures. Another county seat, with the courthouse for proof. I asked this before: how many county seats in California have you visited? Are you more aware of them because I asked about them once already?
My experience with northern California (not sure where the line between north and south is) is only San Francisco, taking the train from the airport through South San Francisco, Daly City, et al into San Francisco, and some of the towns of Marin County. Marin County was a really nice place to me; the dry hills, redwood forests, waterfront towns, etc. How much of northern California is like that? Was Red Bluff like that?
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There are 58 counties in California and, after this trip, I've photographed 43 of the county seats and visited 51. As for my inspiration, I would definitely say your previous comment drew my attention to our counties seats as seeing them was never a calculated effort before. But, they make for a good starting point, particularly in this part of the state as they are often the largest cities. Part of my overall inspiration too has been one of my friends who moved to California six years ago from Georgia and who has been to every county in CA on his motorcycle in that time frame. I haven't accomplished seeing all of California living here for my whole life (33 years), so, I have some catching up to do! I have six more threads planned from this trip and they will all include county seats.
As to the demarcation of "Northern California", sterlippo is right, pretty much everything from the Bay Area north could fall under that category with central California including Montery and Merced down to Bakersfield/San Luis Obispo. Different people might argue this differently, but, that is the general idea. Really, though, there is no common identity in those labels. California is more divided by the coast, valley, and mountains and even that varies.
As to the geography, California is quite diverse and Northern California is no different. Overall, of course, we have the drier climate, particularly in the summer, so, we tend to have that burnt grass look for a good part of the year (though I have a thread planned that will show our greener side). What you saw in Marin is the start of our Redwood forests which pretty much continue along the coastal mountains into Oregon. It is the wettest part of California so it is the greenest and gets thicker as you go north. I've done some threads of cities in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, but, I have yet to make it to Del Norte on the Oregon border.
The middle of Northern California is comprised of the Sacramento Valley, so, flat farmland, making its way to rolling hills in the Red Bluff/Redding area, then the start of the southern Cascades with a few dormant or extinct volcanoes thrown in (Shasta, Lassen, and Sutter Buttes).
The eastern part of Northern California comprises of the Sierra Nevada mountain range dominated with mostly pine tree forests (this is where I grew up) and the northest bordering Nevada/Oregon you find higher elevation deserts, plateaus, and ancient lava beds. Even that doesn't do it all justice. As sterlippo said, it is beautifully diverse scenery. I didn't have the time to take a lot of landscape photos unfortunately, but, I did take a few, so, hopefully some of my other threads will give you a better visual idea.
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