PHOTOS OF THE WEEK: ON THE ROCKS
July 23, 2012 (McCain Valley) - ECM reader Tom Lemon sent in these spectacular photos of McCain Valley, site of the proposed Tule Wind facility in San Diego's East County.
"I first visited McCain Valley around 1995 after reading Jerry Shaad's book Afoot and Afield in San Diego County. I began camping and hiking in the Valley and explored the trails and side roads to vista points where you can see the abandoned San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railroad tracks, the Salton Sea, and Castle Butte in Arizona. Yes, you can see all the way to Arizona," he wrote.
"My friend Brian getting into the spirit of McCain. Yeah, it does make you feel like that."
Lemon also sent an example of an old growth manzanita that he calls the "Methuselah tree" and a teetering formation he dubs the "Mystery Rock" -- examples of the spectacular natural specimens facing potential destruction by Iberdrola Renewables' wind project approved on Bureau of Land Management public property formerly protected for us all.