San Luis Dam Reservoir - Outdoor Wednesday #36

 It's a dry year here in California!

These pictures were taken on Monday, September 14, 2009.

  Before the current Pacheco Pass was completed back in the late 1960's, the main highway went through the middle of the current reservoir.  As a child I remember my dad telling us when we traveled on the old road, that one day it will all be under water.  Later as a teenager,  I watched the reservoir fill up and the country roads and farms disappear. 

A little history.....

The San Luis Reservoir is part of the California State Water Project, a network of dams, reservoirs, pumping stations, and 550 miles of canals and major conduits, that distribute water from Northern California to the agricultural industries of the San Joaquin Valley, and to the metropoli of Southern California.

The earth-fill gravity embankment dam is 305 feet (93 m) tall and was completed in 1967. It is located between Los Banos, California and Gilroy, California along Pacheco Pass. San Luis Reservoir is the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States, with a capacity of 2,041,000 acre-feet (2.52 x 109 m3). San Luis Creek is a small stream that flows through the area and it is sometimes listed as the dam's watershed, even though it is an off-stream reservoir. The dam is owned by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, but is operated by the California Department of Water Resources to store water for its State Water Project.

Happy Outdoor Wednesday. 

Thanks again to Susan for hosting this fun event.  Ror more participants go to "A Southern Daydreamer".

"Mumzie"