The rough, sandy dirt road was slow going, but that just gave me more time to appreciate the scenery.

The road curved to the right, then back to the left and out of the picture.

This panorama  shows a typical view from my descent from the Tehachapi Mountains. Warning: 171K. For an even larger version, click here (360K).

This photo looked back at the road running along  the side of the hill.

It was still a long way down, and the road curved into and out of view below. It took another hour to get to the bottom.

These flowers were an eye-catching  change from the predominantly brown and pale green vegetation.

Slowly but surely, the Central Valley got closer.

This sort of gully or rut was a common obstacle on the dirt road.