The clean, sharp smell of Great Basin Sage in the wind... a Scott's Oriole perched atop of a Kern Joshua... mixed flocks of warblers foraging in a huge cottonwood... the call of a Wren-*** bouncing over a dense stand of chaparral... the deep blue skies and towering pines of the Sierra Nevada...

It is not unusual to encounter these things as you travel around California. It is unusual however, to come across all of them within a few miles of one another - but that's exactly what you can do in the Kern River Valley. Located at the southern edge of the Sierra Nevada, the Kern River Valley is a unique place. Five of California's six bioregions (a region defined by characteristics of the natural environment rather than by man-made divisions) meet here in the Kern River Valley: Great Basin, Mojave Desert, Coastal Chaparral, Sierran Forest and California Grassland; including the largest remaining contiguous riparian forest in the state. With so many different habitats meeting in one place, plants and animals usually separated by many miles can be spotted within a short distance including 350 bird species, 138 butterfly species, 2,000+ species of plants, and the highest mammal diversity in the United States (115 species). The Kern River Valley Bioregions Festival is an annual event that celebrates the local unique biological diversity found in the valley.