Warthan Canyon

The final leg of our ride into the Central Valley took us through Warthan Canyon on highway 198. After camping beside the dry creek bed in Priest Valley (and cooking breakfast on the clay bottom of the creek, so weird!) we got to cruise downhill through the winding curves of the road through the canyon. Since the early 1900s, this route has been a way for Californians to travel between the beaches on the coast and the inland mountains, we learned on an info panel about the area. As we exited the canyon and approached Coalinga we entered some of the earlier oil fields of California (and maybe the US?) and could see the remains of old wells in the distance.Read more