High Gas Prices Impact

In my travels through the very remotest areas of CA, I started to give some thought to the impact that increasingly high gasoline prices are going to have upon places like Modoc County. It is three hours to a reasonably sized town (Redding, CA; Medford, OR; or Reno, NV) and rapidly escalating gasoline prices are making it increasingly expensive to make what used to be considered fairly routine trips for people in the county.

I almost paid $4.00/gallon ($3.999 to be exact) and gas prices over the pass in Cedarville were $4.12/gallon and $4.68/gallon for diesel.

Jim Brown who runs the JNR Hotel in Cedarville told me, “I’ve seen my business go down by one-half primarily due to high gas prices.”

Fortunately, the higher end Surprise Valley Hot Springs hasn’t seen much of an impact, although the local manager Nicki Mulnholland told me, “We’re becoming much more concerned as prices go over $4 and the impact it has upon tourism.”

Remote places like Modoc County are probably going to feel the impact first. It could have some devastating ramifications for the most remote areas. I hope that they are able to survive and find ways to prosper.