Jeff and I went on a day trip with our dogs to visit a
couple of lakes and to hike to Bassi Falls in the Crystal Basin Recreation Area
and the El Dorado National Forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our last stop was Hell Hole Reservoir. This beautiful mountain lake is a large 1,250
surface acre crescent-shaped lake at an elevation of 4,630 feet above sea level
in the Sierra Nevada mountain range 10 miles west of Lake Tahoe. The lake is
about 3.5 miles long when at full capacity. We drove around the south side of the lake and
pulled into the Hell Hole Campground to check out the campsites for a possible future
camping trip. We liked campsite #22
because it was closer to the lakeside and it had it’s own nice large picnic and
fire ring area on the west side with more room.
One side of the campground was closed due to tree removal, so we were
not able to view the higher numbered sites on this day we visited.
The lake was created in 1966 with the completion of Lower
Hell Hole Dam across the Rubicon River, which is a major tributary of the
Middle Fork of the American River. Hell Hole is named for a deep canyon which
is now under the waters of the lake.
How the canyon came to be named Hell Hole is a
combination of folklore and speculation. An early author, George Wharton James
(1858–1923), visited the canyon in 1913.[2] He attributed the name to an
unidentified miner seeking riches during the Squaw Valley mining excitement of
1862. It was "a hell of hole to get out of," James wrote, but
admitted his source for the place name was more speculative than the anonymous
miner's chances for riches at Squaw Valley.
James' guide for the 1913 camping expedition to Hell Hole
was Bob Watson, a well-known camping guide who operated in the Lake Tahoe
Region from the 1880s into the first decades of the 20th century. Watson may
have been the source of the story who sought to entertain and edify his paying
clients with tales of local history. James attributed much of the local lore to
Watson.
The United States Board on Geographic Names attributes
the first use of the name "Hell Hole" to a United States Geological
Survey map of 1894. The board was created in 1890, so previous uses of the name
on federal government maps are possible.
James reported finding a natural lake near the Hell Hole
chasm known as Bear Lake, which would have been drowned by the reservoir. He
also described Hell Hole in terms that belies the colorful name: "Hell
Hole? Then give me more of it," he wrote. The author reported his pleasure
of the canyon was derived from its rugged nature that precluded human
exploitation: Logging, mining, water development and road building, evident in
other portions of the Lake Tahoe region. It was "a paradise of delightful
surprises," he wrote.
Lower Hell Hole Dam (its official name) is operated by
the Placer County Water Agency. The agency controls two dams in the Eldorado
National Forest and Tahoe National Forest. The water agency gained its power
from financing approved by Placer County voters in 1961.
Proposals for the dam date to 1958. In 1964 the first Hell Hole dam was partially
complete. The dam collapsed on December
23, 1964. A new dam was completed in
1966. Placer County sought drinking
water supplies to fuel growth of its communities in the Sacramento Valley. The
gold-rush-era town of Auburn is in Placer County as is the suburban community
of Roseville. The agency also sought to generate hydroelectric power to finance
its ability to deliver the water to users.
Today, the lake offers modern facilities to aid in
waterborne recreation. The remoteness of the lake limits the number of
visitors, so the lake is seldom crowded even during the height of the summer
season. Most boating activity is limited to small powered fishing skiffs,
canoes and kayaks. Afternoon high winds can make boating precarious.
The lake is known by its three components: Lower Hell
Hole, the Narrows and Upper Hell Hole. The lake is accessible by motor vehicle
only at Lower Hell Hole, where a paved launch facility and forest service
ranger station are located. The Hell Hole campground is also located there.
The campground features a view of the polished granite
lakeshore but is not located directly on the shore of the lake because of the
steep grade. The campground features a parking area but the 10 campsites are
walk-in only. Many visitors use Big Meadows campground about one mile away, which has 54 drive-in campsites suitable for recreational vehicles. Our favorite was campsite #22.
A second forest service campground is maintained at Upper
Hell Hole and is known by that name. It can be reached by boat or a 3.5-mile
hiking trail that is reached by crossing the breakwater of the dam and hiking
on a trail that flanks the lake but is several hundred feet above the water.
Upper Hell Hole campground is said to have 15 campsites
and two pit toilets, but does not have trash service or other amenities. A
camping fee is not charged. The campground is arranged on three tiers of
elevation. Steps are cut into the granite rock to connect the levels. During
the spring and early summer snowmelt, several of the campsites feature creeks
and waterfalls nearby. Other campsites there are sheltered by giant granite
boulders. Camping is also permitted wherever the rugged shoreline will permit
boat landing.
The lake's principal inflows are from the Rubicon River
and Five Lakes Creek, formerly a tributary of the Rubicon. Lake water has
drowned the historical confluence of the two water courses. The Rubicon River
was once known as the south fork of the middle fork of the American River. The
Rubicon River's entry into the lake is via a cataract where the river has eroded
through the elevated granite block.
The lake also features many small granitic islands that
expand and contract with the level of the lake. Hell Hole typically has its
highest level of water in May and lowers gradually through the summer and fall.
The forest service maintains visitor services from May 15 through September 15.
The lake is accessible until snow makes roads to the area impassable.
In 1984, the federally protected Granite Chief Wilderness
was created by the United States Congress after a long advocacy campaign by the
Sierra Club, a conservation organization.
Upper Hell Hole forms the western border of the Granite
Chief Wilderness. A small buffer zone between the lake shore and the wilderness
prevents accidental intrusion into the wilderness. The juxtaposition of the
lake and wilderness presents the opportunity for rustic boat/backpacking
adventures through the rugged and scenic 25,680 acres of wilderness. Like the
lake itself, the wilderness is lightly used on the western border. Hell Hole Trail
enters the wilderness from near the lake but is difficult to locate. Granite
Chief Wilderness is managed by the Tahoe National Forest, while visitor
facilities at Hell Hole Reservoir.
This little lizard was enjoying the sun and this rock perch at the shoreline watching our dogs retrieve sticks out of the water!
The pre-dam river channel wended its way several miles to
its confluence with the Middle Fork of the American River near Ralston
Afterbay. In addition to releases from Hell Hole down
the pre-dam path, water is diverted through a pipeline to Middle Fork
Powerhouse (AKA Stephenson Powerhouse) where it flows into Interbay Reservoir.
From here, in addition to releases down the Middle Fork American River, the
water is diverted into a tunnel to Ralston Powerhouse and into Ralston
Afterbay, where it joins water from the pre-dam path. Oxbow Powerhouse and
Oxbow control dam there releases water into the middle fork of the American
River just below the spot of the historical confluence.
Water for hydroelectric generation is also shuttled into
Hell Hole from French Meadows Reservoir which impounds the Middle Fork of the
American River. The water travels through a tunnel to a powerhouse located on
the north side of Hell Hole. French Meadows, at 5,200 elevation, is higher than
the 4,700-foot elevation at Hell Hole.
The traditional channel of the Rubicon River still
maintains water flow from the spillway at Hell Hole Dam and from tributaries of
the Rubicon below the dam, such as Gerle Creek (pronounced girly).
The Placer County Water Agency does not take water
directly from Hell Hole or the other dam but instead claims rights to the water
as it is shipped through the American River System and ends up at Folsom Lake
near Sacramento. Folsom dam was originally constructed for the purposes of
flood control. The Placer water agency's dams and Ralston are presently known
as the Middle Fork Project.
Hell Hole canyon and nearby vicinities initially escaped
man-made exploitation during the latter half of the 19th century, but events
that occurred then allowed eventual exploitation of Hell Hole during the 1960s.
The gold rush of 1849 on the South Fork of the American
River resulted in establishment of Sierra foothill towns of Auburn,
Placerville, Nevada City and Georgetown. The gold rush did not intrude into the
higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada range, but the water and timber needs of
these towns did intrude into the upper elevations. In one case in 1873 the
privately owned, California Water Company employed a scheme to dam Loon Lake to
the south of Hell Hole and then sluice the water closer to Georgetown where it
could be used by residents and farmers.
Somewhat later, in 1862, the residents of Placer County
(Auburn, Foresthill) came upon a scheme to build a road from the Foresthill
divide to Squaw Valley with the intent of luring immigrant trains away from
Nevada City and into Placerville and neighboring vicinities. George Wharton
James, the author, described the road as an ill-fated enterprise: "The
grade is frightful. For an hour or more, we go slowly up it stopping every few
yards or so to give our horses breath," James wrote of a ride on the old
road a half century after it was built. "It is hard enough for horses to go
up this grade but to pull heavily-ladened (sic) wagons - it seems impossible,
" he concluded. Later attempts to improve this road or forge other wagon
roads were not successful.
The Comstock Lode silver rush in the 1860s in Nevada
Territory also encouraged the attempt of the gold-rush foothillers to find
pathways over the mountains to the riches of the Comstock and the more local
Squaw Valley silver excitement.
The roads then brought timber claimants and homesteaders,
called locators, who were able to claim public lands. The old homesteads and
timber claims were bought by private water companies or hoteliers who sought
visitors to the "healthful" mineral springs after much of the timber
was depleted by the mid-1880s.
Railroads brought the tourists. Tourists could reach
Truckee, California by rail from either San Francisco or Ogden, Utah by the end
of the 19th century. The Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company brought
them to the lake. One particular resort established east of Hell Hole has a significant
relationship to the canyon. Deer Park, just south of Squaw Valley (now a ski
area and home to the 1960 Winter Olympics) was a tourist hotel which had a
rustic hideaway camp at Five Lakes now in Granite Chief Wilderness. James
described the Five Lakes resort as a 160-acre (0.65 km2) timber claim in which
the timber had never been cut but in which cabins had been built and rowboats
kept in hand for fishing upon the five small lakes.
The Five Lakes are the headwaters of Five Lakes Creek
which led James on his 1913 horseback descent into Hell Hole in the company of
Bob Watson, the guide. The pair camped at Hell Hole, then ascended the Rubicon
River to Rockbound Lake, where they camped again. Rockbound Lake is now in the
Desolation Wilderness and is near the headwaters of the Rubicon River. The
Sacramento Municipal Utility District controls a dam within the Desolation
Wilderness: Rubicon Reservoir. Desolation Wilderness was created in 1969.
Placer County's 1961 bond approval allowed its water
agency to seek out water supplies that were not already claimed by others. Loon
Lake, south of Hell Hole, was already prescripted, but the rugged, untouched
Hell Hole was not. In 1934, the State of California took steps to claim any
unclaimed water rights along the American River's three forks. In 1962 the
rights to the Rubicon River water were conveyed to Placer County.
The Hell Hole dam, a rock-fill-type dam, was completed
across the Rubicon River in December 1964. As the reservoir began filling the
dam sprung a leak during a flood event and failed completely the next day. The
resulting flood washed down the Middle Fork of the American River and washed
away the Greenwood Bridge near Auburn.
The Placer County Water Agency began a new dam which was
completed two years later and has now stood for 42 years.
Hell Hole Dam was partially completed at the
time of extremely heavy storms in December 1964. The downstream rockfill
portion was up ~220' above the river bottom, but the impervious core and
adjacent zones were only up ~35'. Debris from extreme storm runoff upstream of
the dam blocked the diversion outlet, and water rapidly accumulated behind the
partially constructed dam. As the water came up it was seeping through the
rockfill, and when it crested, the entire mass collapsed in a matter of
minutes. A surge went down the canyon, washing out two older suspension bridges
below the Long Canyon influx and at the Spanish Dry Diggings crossing near
Greenwood. It then washed out the State Highway 49 bridge over the American River
just below Auburn. Folsom Dam reservoir
absorbed the surge below that point.
