The best thing about the Siskiyous: keeps California away from Oregon :)

The Los Angeles-San Diego area is almost a contiguous urbanized land area except for that stretch in southern Orange County and northern San Diego County.  Where there is very little sign of the busy built environment to the south and the north.  And the one recognizable sign off the freeway warns motorists to watch out for the possibility of humans (illegal aliens!) running across.  Thus, southern San Diego County and its cities have not been messed up by the urbanites from north.

A similar barren patch insulates Oregon from any overwhelming influence from California--the mountain stretch all the way from Ashland in the southern tip of Oregon until Redding in California, from where the great valley extends up to Bakersfield, where I lived for many years.

I am so thankful for this geographic feature that stops California at the border, so to speak.

California is a great place to visit, as is New York City. Great to visit only because of the comforting and reassuring feeling that, unlike with the Eagles' Hotel California, I can truly leave after checking out.

I did :)

The Cascades on the eastern side and the Pacific Ocean on the west further ensure minimal interference from those sides. Never before have I paused to appreciate these geographic features for how much they help with the Oregon story.

It is, therefore, a figurative island that this part of Oregon is.  Or, perhaps like the setting in Brigadoon.  Ironically, even the "native" students seem confused when I tell them this is a paradise on earth; I suppose they are yet to check out other places ... they, too, will soon find out :)