Sierra Valley is one of many wide, flat valleys in eastern California that formed as basins between uplifted and tilted ranges. When the climate was favorable it took little effort to maintain lush pasture for game animals and to forage for useful plants in the neighboring uplands. In more recent years, though, pervasive drying and long droughts put stress on tribal lifeways across the west.
The guidebook mentions archaeological sites in Sierra Valley, but the instructions are too vague to locate an exact locality. Likewise, stop 22 is supposed to be a stone quarry from which the early natives got stone for toolmaking, but the directions are inaccurate; also, traffic conditions when I drove through were discouraging on both days I tried to find it. I mention these two stops for completeness' sake.
Day 1, Coast Range: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
Day 2, Sierra Nevada: 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18
Day 3, Sierra Nevada: 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28
