Folsom Dam, Near Sacramento CA, December 2017

3516A.

A person of much ilk to our household visits his mom, who lives in an area outside Sacramento called Carmichael, every so often. During the great drought of 2013-2015, Folsom Lake, located about twenty-five miles northwest of the center of California's capital city, became something of a poster-child for the catastrophe. A flood-control reservoir built in a great, shallow, saucer-shaped valley, unlike the mountain reservoirs we Oregonians are so familiar with, its shoreline fluctuates with great alacrity to the most modest changes in pool depth, and it was less than half-full in 2015 when the most famous pictures of a nearly-dry lake were released, before the rains came back.

While our friend was visiting his mom in December, they drove past the dam itself. Bless him, he takes note of what fascinates me, and came back with pics.

Photo courtesy Our Eddie

Wikipedia has this to say about the dimensions of Folsom Dam ... it:

is a concrete gravity dam on the American River of Northern California in the United States, about 25 mi (40 km) northeast of Sacramento. The dam is 340 ft (100 m) high and 1,400 ft (430 m) long, flanked by earthen wing dams. It was completed in 1955, officially opening the following year.

Photo courtesy Our Eddie

In the current climate, the pool is about forty per cent of depth, water released by those who are in authority to do so in anticipation of whether there will be spring runoff from the mountains to the east of Sac'to. There's currently an argument about that, which will be settled if there is an expected access of spring runoff, and will create another argument if there isn't.

They also don't let you drive across the top of the dam any more, I'm told. Pity that.

We live in peculiar times.

Thanks to Our Eddie for the photos, which I now have in my stock library. Since I have not the time, money, nor resources to travel to places I want to go, I enjoy the hell out of the photos I do get from the people who were there. If you want to share them with me so I can blog about them, feel free to contact me.