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. 

Rain Rain don’t go away

Disclaimer:  I did not take any of these pictures, credit can be found by putting mouse over each picture/image.

Two snows and rains within eight days of each other offers hope to Northern Californians who have been suffering through a number of years of drought.

    

Of course, to make a real impact on the drought, they will need somewhere around 30 feet of snow up in the Sierras.  Here are some of the historic figures for the Sierras along highway 50 and I-80:

• 1 day snowfall: 67 inches (5.6 ft.) at Echo Summit, Jan 4, 1982 (2nd in US)
• Single storm snowfall: 186.6 inches (15.6 ft.) at Donner Summit, 1982 (2nd in US)
• 1 month snowfall: 390 inches (32.5 ft.) at Tamarack, Jan. 1991 (US record)
• Total winter snowfall: 884 inches (73.7 ft.) Tamarack, 1906-07
• Greatest snow depth: 451 inches (37.6 ft.) at Tamarack, Mar. 11, 1911 (US record)
• Highest average March snow depth: 108 inches (9 ft.) at Echo Summit

So “historic” snowfall would do much to relieve the drought…but what is really needed is a few years of near historic, along with finishing the maintenance work on Folsom Dam which is preventing it from being filled to capacity “if” there was enough rain to do so.

Not only did we have rain and wind today down in the valley, but south of Sacramento there was even a Tornado Warning, although no report of a tornado hitting the ground or any damage.

Seeing pictures like the one above reminds me of the many years spent in Arkansas!

    

Above are recent pictures of Folsom Lake (left) and Lake Oroville (right), both at or near record lows.  Water should be covering most of the dirt areas behind the dam on the left, and in the entire picture on the right. Oroville feeds the Sacramento River (as does Shasta Lake much further north), and Folsom feeds the American River which merges with the Sacramento River in Sacramento.  River levels are not as low because they need to be at levels compatible for the Salmon, Shad, Striper and Sturgeon runs (although technically I don’t think the Sturgeon don’t have runs).

Above is a picture of Folsom Dam with all gates open, and the lake at flood stage. 

Above is a picture of the Tower Bridge, which spans the Sacramento River between Sacramento and West Sacramento…you can see it in the the TV show “The Mentalist” in many episodes.

Most of Sacramento is in a flood zone…much like New Orleans. The American and Sacramento rivers meet in Sacramento near downtown. Earthen Levees surround the city along these rivers.  Sacramento has the second-highest flood risk of any major U.S. urban area. If a levee breaks, some residents could have as little as 20 minutes to flee.  During times of drought, and frankly during most years, this is not a thought to most of the people who live here…until there “one of those winters”…a winter in which the dams are near capacity or are being kept low to handle the high snow pack in the mountains. 

When I lived in Sacramento for 31 years, I saw the river levees just feet from overflowing.  Two of these times I lived just a city block or two away from the levee.  At times like that, you also worry about levee breaks, something that has not happened in Sacramento for many many years now…but it has happened further up north in places like Yuba City, or further down the river in the Delta. So far Sacramento has been saved due in part to the Yolo Bypass (above) which floods the west side of the river as the river reaches certain heights.

So we know that the lakes will once again fill, the rivers will continue to flow, and one of these days they will be talking about flooding again.  That is the way of life in Sacramento. Thank goodness that while Sacramento is at a mere 13 feet in elevation, Citrus Heights is at 167 feet…so mom and dad and sisters are all safe…but other family live in the lower ground, so we always worry when the water starts reaching the top of the levees.  But for now…”rain rain don’t go away, we need the water for future days.”