This might sound a bit strange coming from someone who is passionate about Yosemite, lives for Death Valley, and sees the Golden Gate Bridge as the perfect marriage of man and nature but the most iconic vista in California is just east of Bakersfield. I never tire of seeing the abrupt rise of the Sierra from the valley floor as the lower Kern River Canyon makes a dramatic “V” with a patchwork or orange groves and barren ground as I crest Highway 178 on the edge of Bakersfield heading east toward Walker Pass. It’s a stunning and vivid scene of the raw forces of land and civilization clashing.