Visited on 3/9/2019, Jeff
and I loaded up our dogs, Summer and Skye for a day adventure one hour north of
our Ranch up to Nevada County, California.
This was a scattered rainy cloudy day, so we didn’t expect much, but
just wanted to get out of the house and explore the South Yuba River area of
Northern California. We visited four
lakes, two actually located in Nevada County and two in Placer County. Englebright Reservoir was our first
stop. Lake Englebright (Englebright
Reservoir) is at an elevation of 527 feet and is located off of Hwy 20 just
west of Penn Valley, California. The
lake has a surface area of 815 acres with a shoreline of 24 miles that snakes 9
miles long above the dam. The dam was
built by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in 1941 in the steep Yuba River gorge
known as the Narrows and was constructed for the storage of hydraulic gold
mining debris. Englebright Dam is a
concrete arch structure which spans 1,142 feet across and is 260 feet high. Jeff and I were first amazed by the amount of
houseboats we noticed anchored in the marina area. Then secondly we realized that none of these
houseboats were of the late model variety, all of them are aging! No two houseboats were the same and many of
them were two stories tall, they had been modified and homemade or some would
say….custom!
Lake Englebright is unique
and a boat camper's bonanza with only boat-in camping allowed along the 24 mile
shoreline. They have a total of 18
campgrounds and 100 campsites available for use. We visited the boat launch area near the dam
and Park Headquarters, and then on around to Skipper’s Cove, where there is a
Marina store and houseboats can also be rented. The shoreline is steep and rocky with a
private rural feel to it. Most of the
scenery is of grassy rolling hills dotted with pines and oaks. Fishing and house boating appears to be the
favorite pastime on this lake’s quiet narrow coves. Reading one of the signs stated that waterskiing
is allowed only on the first 2/3 of the lake from the dam. On the day we visited the lake was at full
capacity of 538 feet above sea level and the dam was cascading with a roar of
the excess water.
No comments:
Post a Comment