Jeff and I visited Meiss Lake on our way up to Oregon to view the Solar Eclipse in totality on a week long camping trip in our camper/truck with our dogs, Summer and Skye. Meiss Lake is a marshy lake located along the most northern part of California near the Oregon State line along highway 97 in the Butte Valley Wildlife Area. Meiss Lake is a 3,750 natural endorheic shallow warm lake located at an elevation 4,236 of feet above sea level. In order to get to the lake we had to venture off the main highway onto a gravel road through a farming area. When we approached the lake from the south a group of cattle thought we were their feeding truck and came running up to our camper! The lake is a remnant of a larger lake that occupied the entire valley when temperatures were cooler and is fed seasonally by several creeks in Butte Valley. Although Meiss Lake is in the closed Butte Creek Valley basin, in wetter times it undoubtedly flowed over a low divide into Rock Creek and then into the Klamath River east of Copco Lake. A pumping station was installed during the 1964 floods to evacuate floodwaters into Rock Creek as protection for nearby croplands and wildlife habitat wetlands.
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The cattle thought that our Camper was their feeding truck and all came stampeding across the pasture to us!
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On the southern edge of Meiss Lake is the Butte Valley Wildlife Area entrance to the Lake.
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