Big Dry Creek Reservoir - Fresno County, California

Visited on 5/19/2018, Jeff and our two chocolate Labradors, Summer and Skye joined me on a business trip to give Drinking Water examinations in the Central Valley of California.  After completing examinations in Fresno and on my way to meet Jeff and the dogs up at Shaver Lake, I traveled from Fresno to the Central Valley foothills northeast of Fresno to the Big Dry Creek Dam and Reservoir which is a flood control facility located on Dry Creek in Fresno County, near the community of Clovis, about 15 miles northeast of Fresno.  The dam and reservoir also span smaller drainages immediately to the north of Dry Creek. Downstream of the dam, Dry Creek continues on to the southwest, passing through Fresno, for a distance of about 18 miles before it becomes the Dry Creek Canal, which services areas to the southwest of Fresno.  On the day I visited there was very little water in the basin.

In order to get to a spot where I could get a good picture I hiked up the Dam Road which was restricted from vehicle use and No Trespassing signs were everywhere.  The facilities are operated by the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District, which makes controlled releases of flood runoff to downstream infiltration basins. This reservoir and Big Dry Creek Dam was constructed 1948 by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), turned over to the California State Reclamation Board, and finally transferred to Fresno County.  It is currently owned and operated by FMFCD.  The district operates the project to make beneficial use of flood runoff by controlled releases to infiltration basins.

Big Dry Creek Dam was originally constructed with a crest at an elevation of 435 feet above sea level.  In 1993, the dam crest was raised to elevation 442.2 feet.  The size of the reservoir if full would be 2,151 acre feet.

In to access the Reservoir I had to hike up on an access road past several No Trespassing signs posted by the Fresno Metropolitan Flood Control District.  I hate trespassing, but I had to get a picture of the reservoir water!