I don't think people think much about counties here in California, but there sure is a wide difference in geography and demographics among them - a far wider variety than you'd find anywhere else on earth. We have our dramatics coastline, which comes in rocky and sandy varieties; coastal, granitic sierra, and volcanic mountain ranges, two or three types of deserts, huge inland lakes, salted and unsalted; and the Central Valley. We have the lowest and highest points of the lower 48 states. We have large communities of every ethnic group you can think of, and live in two huge urban areas, and in places where you won't see another human being for miles.

But a lot of Californians hardly know what county they live in.
For years, I had seen all the California counties but one. This last summer, I took my family on vacation to that last one, Inyo County, on the dramatic high desert on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. There we saw the bristlecone pines, the oldest living things on earth.

Although we don't really have strong identification with counties, there sure is a big difference between Northern Californians, Southern Californians, and the people in the Central Valley. We could easily be three to five different states.

-Joe Offer, Placer County, California-