A River of a Different Sort

       Having moved to southern California from the wetter climes of upstate New York, I enjoy travelling back in the summer to see the things I miss now:  big trees, fresh water lakes, thunderstorms and dense summer greenery. We are currently in the Brown season here in Orange County, and all of the photos I have been receiving and posting have pointedly emphasized to me the climatic differences between where I live now, and where I grew up.

The subject of our little project: Wappingers Creek near its confluence with the Hudson River.

Familiar sight. Photo by Paul Austin

And this is where Wappingers Creek leads: The Hudson River, which is a venerable and proper river by any measure.

The Hudson River, south of Beacon, NY.

     After posting so many pictures of Wappingers Creek, I thought I would share a few photos of what the largest river in Southern California looks like...

We present the Santa Ana River:

Santa Ana River in Orange, California, view to the north.

 

    Sometimes we even have water in it. 
    What we lack in average flow rate, we make up for in sheer volume: In 1938, the Santa Ana River flooded 68,000 acres of Orange County, killing 60 people, and was declared to be the largest flood hazard in the United States west of the Mississippi by the Army Corps of Engineers. Flooding after heavy winter rains remains a real hazard for a large area of the county.
   

View to the south, only about 12 miles from the Pacific Ocean.