Good morning.

(Here’s the sign-up, if you don’t already get California Today by email.)

If you haven’t been to the Kern River, you may not know that it’s a stunner.

Make the harrowing drive up Highway 178 east from Bakersfield, and you’ll be rewarded with views of tall, green trees, glittering water and giant boulders that look like sculpture.

On parts of the river, the rocky rapids make white-water rafting a summertime draw, and lower down, where the water appears calmer, campgrounds are a destination for families looking for an affordable getaway.

But that, rescuers and experts have long said, is where you can get into trouble.

“The problem is that the speed with which people drown is just so fast,” Zac Boyd of the Kern County Fire Department told me. “Once they’re in the water, the life expectancy drops.”