A natural disaster

Ramona, I hear the mission bells above.
Ramona, they're ringing out our song of love.
I press you, caress you, and bless the day you taught me to care. To always remember the rambling rose you wear in your hair.
The Bachelors 1964

A tenuous musical link I know but we've passed through Ramona twice in the last week. Once on our way to Julian and again today on our way to Palm Springs. On both occasions we've all broken into song so I felt obliged to use it. There's nothing much else to recommend the town I'm afraid.

Just through Ramona on SR 78 is an area that was greatly damaged by the recent fires and it is a depressing panorama.
Very little vegetation can be seen and the authorities have sprayed Hydroseeding along all the banks and verges to try to stabilise the ground. (Without the plant roots to hold it together, the earth is liable to slurry and create mud slides in wet weather). Originally this was green but has now bleached to a muddy yellow and looks very unlike nature would have intended. It doesn't appear to have started to sprout yet either but hopefully time and moisture will bring about a greening effect.
Nothing can be done about the trees though and blackened trunks and stumps are evident everywhere like victims of some terrible holocaust.
Most distressing however are the buildings, many of them gone completely, others having no more than a chimney breast still standing. These were all homes to families less than 4 months ago and now they are gone.
There are some signs of regeneration and we saw several brand new homes that we guessed had been built to replace burned-out ones.
The heartbreaking ones were those that obviously did not carry insurance and the charred remains of someone's recent home stood there with a sign attached to the gate.
'Bank Foreclosure'.
It was so sad and I wish I could convey to you the sight of utter desolation that we witnessed but I could not bring myself to take the photos which would have given you a better sense of the occasion. I felt that it would be an intrusion into some poor families sorrow.

Once we had passed the fire area, the countryside went through a great many changes and the few small towns we passed through seemed to be more of a collection of dwellings rather than a regular town. The ground looked so unforgiving that I guess it wasn't possible to find enough flat ground to put two houses together.
I can't say we were overly impressed or driven to look for a place to stay, let alone live.

The descent into the Coachella Valley which houses Palm Springs, Palm Desert and various other towns, is very steep and comprises a series of hairpin bends.
From the top it looks very bleak and burned out, apart from the emerald green of the numerous golf courses. Once you get down to the plain though, everything is green and verdant within the city limits and at first sight, it's a very impressive, if somewhat artificial, place to see. This is obviously a result of constant watering and I just hope the springs never run dry.
Hopefully, some day in the future, the fire devastated areas will become green again though I guess they will never be (or want to be) as green as Palm Springs.
We didn't get to see much today before the light went but hopefully we can have a whole days exploring tomorrow.