Salinas Valley

The Salinas Valley is one of the major valleys and most productive agricultural regions in California. Located within Monterey County, it is west of the San Joaquin Valley and south of San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley—Silicon Valley. The Salinas Valley is also famously mentioned in John Steinbeck's novels.

The Salinas River, which geologically formed the fluvial valley and generated its human history, flows to the northwest or 'up' along the principal axis and length of the valley.

The valley was named during the late 18th-century Spanish colonial Alta California period, and in Spanish salina is the term for a salt marsh, salt lake, or salt pan. The seasonal Salinas River had brackish tule ponds in broad depressed areas, and more salinity during summer and drought lowered flows.

The valley runs in a southeast to northwest alignment. It begins south of San Ardo, framed by the central inner California Coast Ranges, continues north-westward continuously defined on the west by the Santa Lucia Range, on the east by the Gabilan Range, to its end and the river's mouth at the Monterey Bay.

John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men (as well as others) was set in the Salinas Valley, with the valley providing the backdrop for some of his most famous novels.

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