Thursday, June 13, 2019

Indian Valley Reservoir - Lake County, California


Campsite #2 at the Campground located at the South end of the Lake.



Jeff and I decided to load up the dogs on 5/26/2019 and take a Sunday fun day drive to Indian Valley Reservoir.  This 4,000 surface acre man-made lake in the mountain terrain 27 miles west of Williams, California and 15 miles east of Clear Lake just north near State Route 20.  The reservoir is located at an elevation of 1,421 feet above sea level.  We enjoyed throwing the ball into the lake for the dogs and spent a good hour just enjoying campsite #2 for the afternoon.

The reservoir was created by the construction of the Indian Valley Dam across the north fork of Cache Creek in 1975. The 965 foot long and 201 foot high earth-fill dam was built for water storage, irrigation and flood control.  Although the reservoir is in Lake County, it was built by neighboring Yolo County, who own all water rights to the 300,600 acre feet of water. The dam includes a hydroelectric plant.

The reservoir is in the Bureau of Land Management's Walker Ridge Recreation Area. All types of recreation are allowed, including boating, camping, fishing, hunting, hiking, bicycling and horseback riding.

There are two primitive boat/hike-in campgrounds, Blue Oaks and Kowalski. The best camping site is located at the furthest east end of the Kowalski campground with two picnic tables a couple of shade trees and your own access ramp area to enjoy the lake.

The area's flora and fauna include manzanita, oak and pine trees, blacktail deer, black bear, and wild turkey. Rare plants such as the Indian Valley Brodiaea and Adobe lily grow here.





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