Day Trip to Lake Oroville

Lake Oroville is the second-largest reservoir in California behind only Shasta Lake up above Redding in far Northern California.  At capacity, Oroville will hold 3,500,000 acre feet of water, and is currently holding around 3,400,000 acre feet.  What is so interesting about this figure is this…back in mid-December the lake was at an all time low (since initial filling) of 600,000 acre feet.

A typical picture found on the Internet showing the lake at its low.  Boats could not launch or be taken out.  Overall the drought lasted five years.  Governor Brown says California is still in a drought, to me, the affects of the drought would have been lessen had he allowed the building of the Auburn Dam during his 1970's term ... but that's another story.

Today we found a lake that was full, as shown in this panoramic view above.

Yes, those are the same boats (taken from a different angle) as in the first picture.  I think the boaters are going to have fun this summer…and farmers north of Stockton (which is about 50 miles south of Sacramento) are very happy because they will get all the water they need this year for their crops because Shasta Lake is also near capacity.

Although this boater, who is getting a tow, may not be as happy…perhaps all he did was run out of gas…then again, perhaps he blew an engine.

Now this is a different type of house boat…

   

It is just so nice seeing all that water!


FLASH BACK IN TIME…

   

Above are pictures we took back in July of 2013, when the lake was down…but not down at historic lows.  These pictures were taken at the same spot as the other ones I took above (excluding first picture got off Internet).

We also drove over to the dam, where I got this panoramic picture above.  The water is very high, only 7 feet from the top.  Oroville Dam is an earthen dam and is the tallest dam located in the United States, measuring over 770 feet high and 6,920 feet across. The dam was the largest earth-fill dam in the world until succeeded by Aswan High Dam in Egypt.

Here's a panoramic from the other side of the dam, looking west towards Oroville.  Wish it was a clearer day, you can see the Butt Mountains from this view, but today it is hidden in the haze.

Oroville is 65 miles away from Citrus Heights, and we left at 10 am.  Arriving at 11:30, we decided to get a bite to eat before proceeding to the lake.  I had found a well recommended place which is fairly new called “The Broken Plate”, a Greek – Mediterranean Cuisine.  After having high hopes for some authentic Greek food, since the owner is from Greece, Marcia and I had our hopes dashed.  Not saying the food was bad, it just wasn't the type of Greek Food we had hopes for.

    

First, it is another Greek Restaurant where you walk up to a counter, place your order and pay…and they will call your name when your food is ready.  Second, the menu had some Greek items on it, but the Gyro (pronounced "YEE-ro" or “yiro") that I had was dry and looked to me as being precooked out of a package.  Mom and Marcia both had a Greek Salad, but they did not put on the olives on Marcia’s salad…and the salad was nothing special and barely “Greek” at all. Now dad, he ordered what they call a Pizza Cone.  Pictured right, it is like a Pizza which is in the shape of a Ice Cream Cone.  Dad said it was good and he would order it again.  Personally, I think that anyone who can create a Pizza Cone, which he has won awards with by-the-way, could serve some more authentic Greek foods, prepared in-house and not just opened and served out of the box delivered by Sysco or some other food distributor.  But again, it is just our opinion…and it did not even have Greek Avgolemono Soup! Boy, we sure miss our Greek Restaurants in Tarpon Springs as we travel.

Over all we had a wonderful day, topped off by a stop at a Foster's Freeze on the way home.   While the three of them had ice cream, I had a Raspberry Ice Tea, and we headed for home, arriving back shortly after 4 pm.