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| The Salinas River inspired much of Steinbeck's environmental description... |
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| A scene from an early morning hike around Point Lobos Nature Preserve. Beauty in simplicity! |
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| If you look closely enough at the seemingly inconsequential, you'll find something meaningful... (from the Red Pony ranch). |
The Carmel is a lovely little river. It isn’t very long but in its course it has everything a river should have. It rises in the mountains, and tumbles down a while, runs through shallows, is dammed to make a lake, spills over the dam, crackles among round boulders, wanders lazily under sycamores, spills into pools...A few miles up the valley the river cuts in under a high cliff from which vines and ferns hang down. At the base of this cliff there is a pool, green and deep, and on the other side of the pool is a little sandy place where it is good to sit and cook your dinner...Little water snakes slipped down to the rocks and then gently entered the water and swam along through the pool, their heads held up like little periscopes and a tiny wake spreading behind them. (Steinbeck 68-70)
Mack awakened, started up, stretched, staggered to the pool, washed his face with cupped hands, hacked, spat, washed out his mouth, broke wind, tightened his belt, scratched his legs, combed his wet hair with his fingers, drank from the jug, belched and sat down by the fire...Men all do about the same things when they wake up. Mack’s process was loosely the one all of them followed. (Steinbeck 70)
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