Life in Lake Isabella #3- Is that Street Sign Hand-Painted?

The River of Rocks Covered in Snow 

                       In a California increasingly known for its unbelievably high housing prices, life in the Kern River Valley is (literally and figuratively) a breath of fresh air. Depending on the area, and market availability, people can usually purchase a good amount of property and house for lower prices than what they would pay in Bakersfield, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, San Diego, or pretty much any well-established area in California.

                        If you want acreage, a small ranch, space to build, closeness to wilderness such as streams or mountain, and privacy, I can’t recommend the Kern River Valley enough. Being used to Bakersfield prices (which are also fairly low compared to other places in California,) I have been astonished at how low the property prices are in my neighborhood. 

                        Of course, there are reasons for this. We are geographically isolated, as I discuss in a former blog post here, and we have some….interesting….infrastructure. Before moving here, I was used to uniform street signs, pavement on all roads, sidewalks, streets that follow a North/South/East/West grid pattern, and street lamps. Driving around trying to find people’s houses in areas like Bodfish or Wofford Heights is a confusing experience (especially at dusk, and because I am partially blind in one eye, as I explain in THIS blog post.) 

                Depending on the area, there are literally hand-painted street signs (some more well-painted than others,) missing street signs, roads that end up being people’s driveways, and other maze-like qualities to navigate. I have bottomed out my car on rocks, driven miles up random dirt roads, and once even set my car on fire (but that is another story, and not the fault of the maze of roads.)

                        Google might help sometimes, but it’s sometimes wrong. Our property is several miles away from Isabella Lake itself but every summer we have to turn confused tourists back toward town because Google told them to drive up our road to get to the lake. Our street will NOT get you to the lake!     

I don’t take street lamps or easy-to-navigate residential areas for granted anymore. And I try to give myself plenty of time (preferably not at dusk) to find the houses of my friends.  

But for all that, the property my family is privileged to live on is unbelievable by California standards. Rock River Hill (my name for it- not the official street name), has 13 acres with 2 residences, one large Orchard, vegetable and flower gardens, wood lots, huge boulders, plenty of room for future projects (chickens or bees, maybe?), gorgeous views, blue skies, and of course, fresh air. 

I can’t think of a better place to raise my children. 

Do you feel that the positives of living in the Kern River Valley outweigh the negatives?