Between Bardsdale and Santa Paula

Fillmore is the last larger town in the valley to meet the flood unwarned. Many lives in Santa Paula will be saved because they had an hour's notice. Bardsdale and Fillmore were not as fortunate with Fillmore being lower and closer to the river absorbing most of the damage and loss of life. Fillmore sits just a little higher on the north edge of the river valley and that elevation saved it.

As you look at the hills and mountain ridges and especially the road cuts along your drive, in these cuts, you will notice rounded stones forming layers in the strata. These are the result of past flooding when the water was flowing fast and deep enough to roll them down the canyons. Years and decades go by and the layer of small rounded boulders in covered over with finer sands or alluvium as the mountains erode. Over the years, the sediments become compacted and when roads are cut through the mountains they have become, their strata of cemented boulders tell the story of natural floods past.

When seismic activity compresses and folds the layers and they form an "A" outline, they are called anticlines. When they are folded like a "U", they are called synclines. As you drive along, keep an eye out for tilted strata at angles that make the creative forces behind them interesting to contemplate. A great jumbled puzzle of rocks and a river runs through it...