Chapter 13, The Empty Interior

The Empty Interior is defined as a place where aridity and lushness intermingle across wide desert valleys and rugged mountains.  It "stretches across from the Rocky Mountains' eastern slopes west to Sierra Nevada, the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the Coast Mountains of British Columbia."  This massive area of land has a low population density. 

The Bay Area is so close to the Empty Interior, but it has none of the characteristics of it.  The Bay Area is highly dense in population, with the imprint of city-life in all county areas.  And because many major corporations have San Francisco and the Bay Area as one of its headquarters the land is mostly used for residential and commercial use.  To name a few, there are Google and Yahoo in the Silicon Valley, Pixar in Emeryville, and C&H Sugar in Crockett (which I have talked about in a previous blog).
 

Though there are small pockets of arid and lush land in the Bay Area they are far and few between.  The only few places that I can think of are in the eastern Alameda County and up north passed Solano County.  Driving on East 580 you came across the Altamont Pass where there is a wind farm that contains relatively 4300 wind turbines of various types. 
 
 only a few of the wind turbines at the Altamont Pass, http://www.otrwjam.wordpress.com/

Driving East on Interstate 80 you drive across Solano County where there used to be farmland, but because of the high demand for homes and commercial use most of the farmland is gone.  But you can still have a pleasant view of some of the farmlands that are still out there.  You just have to look really quick because it will just pass you by.

farm in Solano County, http://www.robertcampbellphotography.com/