New Melones Detour Once Again!
Yesterday, my daughter, Amber, and her son, Giovanni, and I headed to the hills. Our destination was Murphys, a picturesque town at 2100 feet in Calaveras County.
Once again, my Nissan Maxima took a detour to Tuolomne County. And this time, Amber was driving! Instead of the vineyards between Vallecito and Murphys we saw that the road to our right was a sheer drop to a canyon of evergreen. Soon, we came up on a almost unrecognizable site. We were divinely led to see the heartbreaking state of a very, very dry New Melones Reservoir.
Today, New Melones has 543,495 acre feet in storage. The total capacity of the reservoir is 2,420,000 acre feet.
In August, Stockton East Water District determined that no irrigation water from New Melones Reservoir will be available to the district's water users past mid-August.
An even scarier photo of New Melones. |
I am continually amazed at the number of people who say that the drought is over! Even one of our presidential candidates has visited California and uttered those words. He apparently did not visit New Melones.
An upside to this dreary news is that we passed Natural Bridges on the way to the reservoir. Cars were parked on the shoulder of the road, so there had to be water down there for people to enjoy! We saw a woman carrying a kayak.
Natural Bridges Calaveras-county
Amber had never before seen Natural Bridges, and she felt that she and Giovanni were led to discover a cool place to hike and enjoy the water!
Look here for future blogs about Natural Bridges.
An upside to this dreary news is that we passed Natural Bridges on the way to the reservoir. Cars were parked on the shoulder of the road, so there had to be water down there for people to enjoy! We saw a woman carrying a kayak.
Natural Bridges Calaveras-county
Amber had never before seen Natural Bridges, and she felt that she and Giovanni were led to discover a cool place to hike and enjoy the water!
Look here for future blogs about Natural Bridges.