Steinbeck’s
Salinas
The soft rolling hills on the left, coming south out
of Salinas, were a sunlit green. That’s not usual for California where climate
keeps the land parched, dry, and golden.
Having lived along the gold coast many years, I’d gotten used to the color. The
rolling Gabilan Mountains skirting Salinas on the east matches the color, usually. http://www.californiagoldcoastguide.com/
Today proved different for the occasional
visitor. It’s spring, and by some quirk called weather, it had rained. The
valley below the mountains stays green
from the hiss of agricultural sprinklers that spurt non-stop, but the mountains themselves depend on sky tears. Dusty
gold turns to blotches of deep purple shiners when clouds rumble by to grab at
the peaks with whitened fingers.
“Dark and
brooding” (as Steinbeck calls them,) the Santa Lucia’s rise nearly 6,000 feet from
the valley floor. Their highlands gave
birth to the Grapes of Wrath. This is California wine country. http://www.santaluciahighlands.com/slh-appellation
My eyes follow the thin filaments of white smoke
from ag-fires up, taking in the wizened flanks that had turned
a deep, dark blue-green. .They halt at the foggy mists shrouding the mountain tops.
From their summits down to the valley
floor and up the other side of the 3,000 foot Gabilans, the two ranges that
define the Salinas Valley form a virtual parabola. These mountains had never
before looked so steep to me. It took my breath away.
Steinbeck describes it well: http://steinbeckcountry.sutromedia.com/santa-lucia-mountains.html
