Motion Pictures

Recently I was telling you about my trip to the Salton Sea. I wanted to show you some pictures from it, but it proved harder than I anticipated to get the pictures out of my camera phone.

As I was saying, the trip over the inland mountains in San Diego County is a WILD ride!

You go from basically sea level up to 4200 feet (just a thousand feet shy of a MILE UP!) and then plunge SUDDENLY back down to sea level again when you hit the Imperial Valley (which is Imperial County rather than San Diego County).

The ride is beautiful.

As I made it, I wished I could take all y’all along with me (though my pickup would never hold that many) just so you could see the GORGEOUS mountain scenery.

Photos never really capture the beauty fully, and you always drive past the most interesting things before you can get a picture of them, but . . .

WAIT! WHAT AM I SAYING???

Taking pictures of passing scenery with a camera phone as you’re driving a pickup in 70-80 mph traffic on curvy mountain roads???

That’d be incredibly reckless!!!

But then . . .

That Y-chromosome I’m packin’ gives me a license to do reckless things from time to time.

So here goes . . .

NOTE: Taking these pictures is not as reckless as I just made it sound. The above description is deliberately hyperbolic. Also, you don’t hold a camera phone up to your eye, anyway (that would block your vision and would be really reckless). You just hold the phone up–without viewfinding–press the button, and get what you get.

Now here’s the pictures.

This first one was not actually taken while I was driving. Instead, it was taken from a rest stop to the east of San Diego in the Cleveland National "Forest."

Note how much green there is on the mountain.

I know, I know. It’s not much compared to what folks back east are used to–just some bushes on a hillside–but by SoCal standards, it’s a forest!

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This "green" zone in San Diego County is part of the Cuyamaca (KWEE-ah-MAH-kah) Mountains.

The hills in San Diego County aren’t all this green, though. Here’s one where there is less green and more sand, as we see passing into the Laguna (Lah-GOO-nah) Mountains:

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As one proceeds to the east, things start to get rockier as we go into the In-Ko-Pah (In-Ko-Pah) Mountains. . . .

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And it gets rockier, with BIG rocks (that’s a semi-truck to the left, there) . . .

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And then the hills lose all green and sand and are made ENTIRELY OF ROCK (ignore the bugsplatter on my windshield) . . .

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The mountains also start to change color, like the stretch below, which is made of dark chocolate colored ROCKS.

By now we’re into the Jacumba (Hah-KUM-bah) Mountains, our FOURTH mountain range in ONE county! (Admittedly, it’s a county larger than some American states and some European countries.)

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There are also piles of rock that are different colors (note the tiny car to the lower left). . . .

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You never know what color rocks you’ll see around each turn in the road. Here’s a lighter-than-chocolate mountain (still with the tiny car). . . .

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And more . . . (Remember what the color green looks like? Me neither. It’s PURE ROCK out here.)

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SUDDENLY THE COLOR CHANGES TO GREY!

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The color may even change more than once in a single turn of the road!

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Like I said, you never can get pictures of the best images. Some of the things you see in the Jacumba Mountains are absolutely AMAZING. It’s like GOD’S ROCKPILE as you shoot out In-Ko-Pah Gorge into the Imperial Valley, less than three from the Mexican border!!!

And then we SUDDENLY drop off into the Imperial Valley!

YEE-HAW!!!

Here’s a first glimpse!

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By comparison to what has gone before, the Imperial Valley (where the Salton Sea is located) is really, REALLY flat!

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FUN STUFF!!!

And that’s just getting out of San Diego County!

NEXT (in this series): Into Imperial County!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

7 thoughts on “Motion Pictures”

  1. It’s also the Y chromosome that makes you post pictures of an exploded snake on your blog!
    Nice pictures from your trip though — interesting – you’re right — the landscape is very different from what we’re used to in the east — why does the rock change color?

  2. It’s also the Y chromosome that makes you post pictures of an exploded snake on your blog!
    Yeah, I’ll buy that.
    Y’know, if you look over in that thread then (judging by their names) there’s only one female commentator at the moment, who is going “Eww! Eww! Eww!” and imagining what it would be like to *find* the scene.
    All the other commentators at the moment are males (judging by their names), and they are either
    (a) competing with each other see who can crack the same joke first (thus engaging in a struggle amongst themselves),
    (b) finding fault with the snake’s strategy in consuming the alligator (thus imagining themselves as participants in the animals’ struggle), or
    (c) talking about what these critters taste like (thus imagining at least subconsciously that they were participants in the animals’ struggle).
    That’s got XX vs. XY written all over it.
    Nice pictures from your trip though
    Thanks! I only wish they were better quality. (Something I’m working on.)
    — interesting – you’re right — the landscape is very different from what we’re used to in the east — why does the rock change color?
    (Silly answer:) California is formed out of “chameleon rocks” that change color in order to hide in their natural environment.
    (Literally true but boring answer:) It’s cause they’re made out of different stuff.
    (More interesting answer:) It’s cause they represent different layers of stuff that were laid down (or solidified) at different times and have been twisted and bent and shattered and weathered as a result of the geological faulting and uplift that created the mountain ranges.
    At least that’d be my guess. 🙂
    P.S. Thanks for the great comment!

  3. Just curious Jimmy but did you travel this route by way of I-8?
    My friend who is a priest is out in the Imperial Valley and I was thinking of heading out that way to see him. I am curious to see and hear more about your drive 🙂

  4. Shuckey-darns, but I’ve been hankerin’ for a road trip for a while now! I’d hoped to drop out & follow Nickel Creek around on tour this Fall/Winter for a week but their schedule is crummy this time. (SIGH) It’s just as well . . . I gotta lotta books to catch up on.
    Thanks for lettin’ me live vicariously through your road trip!

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