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Christmas on Sutter Street

Labels: christmas, folsom, historic, ice, skating, street, sutter

posted Thursday, December 25, 2008 | permalink

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Folsom Lake Peninsula

December 13, 2008
With the forecast of rain looming, I decided to head out to the peninsula at Folsom Lake since the water level is at historic lows right now. Lake elevation was about 366ft at the time, a full hundred feet below full. Here's some of what I saw....

Heading in from the main gate I almost immediately came across this old bridge. I'm pretty sure this was part of the old road between Rattlesnake Bar and Mormon Island.

Heading in the general direction of the tip of the peninsula and Folsom Dam I headed down to the water line and came across a cache of hazard markers.

After walking for some distance, I crested a tall hill. There was the dam off in the distance. Still a long way to go.

Looking for some easier going, I headed for higher ground where I came back across the remnants of the road again. Its a little hard to see in this shot, but those are pieces of asphalt. I actually ended up following this for quite some time until the terrain turned sandy and it faded away.

I came across this ditch. The entire area from Salmon Falls on down is laced with these. It used to be part of a system that carried water to the mining operations. Only a little further to go now.

After about an hour and a half of walking I'd finally come to the tip of the peninsula. The dam was amazingly close from here. It was getting late in the day, so I'd better keep moving. Time to head back.

Looks like someone lost their motor cover. This was under 100 ft of water at one time.

Since I came in on the northern edge of the peninula I tracked to the south on my way out. The south side is definitely more rocky. Lots and lots of tree stumps out there too. All the trees were cut down when the dam was being constructed

This was some pretty squishy mud, as I found out. The open plains of uncovered lake bed were vast. This picture doesn't really do it justice. Thats Brown's Ravine off in the distance.

Almost back now, making my way through the campground I passed by this launch ramp. The water is so low that the bottom of the ramp is nowhere near the water. My feet were a little sore, but well worth the trip.

The Army Corp of Engineers is working on raising the dam by 8ft, which will add a lot of capacity, so the lake may not be this low again for a long time.

Labels: drought, folsom, lake, low, peninsula