A few days ago, on my way down the hill, I stopped to shoot the city of Banning from above. The incline is so steep, I didn’t have to go to a special view site, I just pulled over on the side of the road, and shot over the edge! The snowcapped mountain in the background is the Big Bear/Lake Arrowhead area, and directly behind me would be the Idyllwild area – Banning is located smack in the middle between those mountain resort areas, in the valley below.
I’ve never known very much about Banning, it was always just a dusty little town on the way to the desert. In fact, in my family we say “Beaumont and Banning” like it’s all one place, when in reality they are two separate neighboring cities. Sisters in the same valley, but definitely separate cities. I spent the day exploring both.
Beaumont is the smaller of the two, population-wise, but it seems bigger driving through? I’m not sure why? Banning has twice the population, but it seems smaller and dustier, which I actually like. The fewer big box stores, the better, as far as I’m concerned! It also has a tiny but cute downtown area with an old theater that still shows movies. I read over the weekend that the movie theater was being considered for a grant to get the outside repainted, and the inside renovated – so it sounds like that theater will stay healthy, business-wise.
What I like best about both cities is the fact that there are so many old houses. It was never a terribly wealthy area, so the old houses are all small – there are no big Victorian mansions like you’d find in downtown Riverside or Redlands, but if you’re looking for a little old house, they have them!
I’ll end with a shot of a branch from a tree in Banning – nothing special, but every spring, this kind of tree knocks me out – the blossoms are so PINK! And with no leaves, just masses of hot pink flowers, they look too unreal to be real. So I stopped and got my yearly image, and that’s that. And I’ll probably do it again next year!
