Loch Lomond Reservoir - Santa Cruz County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 while on a weekend camping trip adventure to the South Bay Area, we camped at Coyote Lake near Gilroy.  Jeff and our two Chocolate Labs, Summer and Skye joined us on our adventure of several lakes in the area.  Loch Lomond is nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lompico, California and is located 574 feet above sea level.  This 175 acre reservoir is part of the Santa Cruz Water Department system, it was created by building the Newell Creek Dam across Newell Creek - a tributary of the San Lorenzo River. The dam is an earth-fill barricade, measuring 190 feet by 750 feet. It was financed by bond issuance, and completed in the Fall of 1960; impounded water first ran over the spillway in March 1963. It is 2.5 miles long, 0.25 miles wide.  It provides a portion of the drinking water supply for the city of Santa Cruz, California and other nearby County areas. Boating, fishing, picnicking and hiking take place at the reservoir. No daily private boat launching is permitted. No swimming is allowed. The reservoir has a boat rental and nice little snack shop which has great ice cream treats.

Jeff and I stopped in the town of Felton and visited this historic old covered bridge which was built back in 1892.  The Felton Covered Bridge is a covered bridge over the San Lorenzo River in Felton, Santa Cruz County in the U.S. state of California. The bridge employs a Brown truss structural system and is approximately 80 feet long. The bridge became a California Historical Landmark in 1957, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, and had a major restoration in 1987 after being damaged in storms in the winter of 1982.

Felton Covered Bridge is considered to be the tallest covered bridge in the United States, and was the main entry point for Felton for 45 years.  The bridge is no longer used on the roadway, but is accessible to pedestrians visiting the Felton Covered Bridge Park.

To cap off the long day of visiting many lakes in the area we decided to reward our patient and water loving Chocolate Labs for visiting several lakes without putting their paws in the water.  We treated them to a off-leash beach visit to Santa Cruz at the Lighthouse Dog Beach.  They chased the ball into the ocean and became friends with several other dogs having fun along the coast.

Lake Elsman - Santa Clara County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 during a weekend camping trip with Jeff and our two Chocolate labs, Summer and Skye.  Lake Elsman is a reservoir, created by an earthen dam called Austrian Dam on Los Gatos Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California.   At several points it is over 140' deep and its normal surface area is 96 acres.   It provides 12% of San Jose Water Works’ total water capacity in some years.  The lake is located at 1,119 feet above sea level and dam is owned by the San Jose Water Company.  Restricted access is strictly enforced by the Water Company and private lands surrounding the lake.

In 1988 and 1989, two earthquakes 5.3 and 5.4 respectively occurred at Lake Elsman that transferred stress that led to the 1989 6.9 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

Construction of the Austrian Dam was completed in 1950.  Beneath the reservoir are the remains of the settlements of Austrian Gulch and Germantown.  The dam is more than 900 feet long and 180 feet high.  The dam was damaged in the Loma Prieta quake.   The performance of Austrian Dam during that earthquake reinforces concerns about damage to the tops of earth dams by earthquakes.

Driving around the hills trying to find access to Lake Elmans, we drove along this creek that exits the dam along the west side of the lake.  Nice sounds of the water trickling over the rocks.

Lexington Reservoir - Santa Clara County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 while on a weekend camping trip adventure to the South Bay Area, we camped at Coyote Lake near Gilroy.  Jeff and our two Chocolate Labs, Summer and Skye joined us on our adventure of several lakes in the area.  Located along the canyon on Highway 17 southwest of the town of Los Gatos is the 450 acre Lexington Reservoir.  The reservoir and James J. Lenihan Dam are located at an elevation of 645 feet above sea level.  Jeff and I walked across the dam with our dogs.  The dam was constructed in 1952. Initially, the dam was referred to by different names, primarily "Windy Point Dam," because the location of the proposed dam was near an obscure spur known as Windy Point. In 1947, water district directors decided to name the dam and reservoir for Lexington, a small nearby community that was sacrificed when the reservoir was built. In 1996, Lexington Dam was renamed for James J. Lenihan, the Santa Clara Valley Water District's longest-serving director with 37 years of service.

The 2.5-miles-long reservoir is the second-largest water district reservoir.   In 1943, because of the rapid expansion of orchards in the county, the Santa Clara Valley Water District determined that the well water in the Santa Clara Valley was being diminished rapidly and a dam was needed on Los Gatos Creek, with one goal being to percolate the water into the ground and ultimately increase the amount of well water available.  After rerouting State Route 17 near Windy Point, which is a mile south of Los Gatos, the District began dam construction in the spring of 1952, completing it that fall.

The reservoir covered the towns of Lexington and Alma. Alma and Lexington reached their peak population in the mid-19th century, when about 200 people lived in each. Each of the towns had a post office, hotel, saloons, blacksmith shops, and half a dozen redwood sawmills. Lexington was the halfway stop for stagecoaches running between San Jose and Santa Cruz. The town served as a place to switch from four horses to six horses to get over the mountains. Lexington declined after 1880 when the narrow gauge railroad from Los Gatos to Santa Cruz bypassed it, while Alma declined when Highway 17 bypassed it in 1940. The railroad ceased operations in 1940. By 1950, only about 100 people lived in the two communities.

Lexington gained national attention in 1883, when a Los Gatos saloon keeper, Lloyd Majors, hired two thugs to rob an elderly Lexington man who kept $20,000 in gold in his cabin. They burned him with turpentine-soaked rags and beat him with pistols, killing him, and then fled with the gold. Their sensational trial in San Jose drew national attention similar to that accorded to the Lizzie Borden ax murders nine years later. Majors and one of the thugs were hanged. The other spent 15 years in prison.

Stevens Creek Reservoir - Santa Clara County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 while on a weekend camping trip adventure to the South Bay Area, we camped at Coyote Lake near Gilroy.  Jeff and our two Chocolate Labs, Summer and Skye joined us on our adventure of several lakes in the area.  Stevens Creek Reservoir is located 365 feet above sea level along a creek that bares it’s name and is about two miles southwest of town of Cupertino.   Stevens Creek is a 92 acre reservoir which was originally known as Arroyo de San José Cupertino. The stream now bears the name of an early settler, Captain Elishia Stephens, a South Carolinian, who led the first successful passage of wagons over the Sierra Nevada in 1844. Stevens Creek dam and reservoir is one of six original systems approved for construction by voters in 1934. It was completed in 1935. In 1985, an additional 231,000 cubic yards of material was added to the dam, raising it 10 feet. 

Vasona Lake - Santa Clara County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 while on a weekend camping trip adventure to the South Bay Area, we camped at Coyote Lake near Gilroy.  Jeff and our two Chocolate Labs, Summer and Skye joined us on our adventure of several lakes in the area.  Vasona Lake is a 58 acre urban lake and recreation park in the City of Los Gatos at an elevation of 185 feet above sea level.   This County park has many large group picnic areas and a walking trail around the lake.  Lots of locals were out walking and enjoying this spring time day around the lake.  Adjacent to Vasona Lake County Park is the Town of Los Gatos' Oak Meadow Park. Here, visitors can ride a carousel, picnic, play informal sports, or enjoy the playground. Miniature train rides on the Billy Jones Wildcat Railroad originates in Oak Meadow and run through Vasona Lake County Park.

Almaden Reservoir - Santa Clara County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 while on a weekend camping trip adventure to the South Bay Area, we camped at Coyote Lake near Gilroy.  Jeff and our two Chocolate Labs, Summer and Skye joined us on our adventure of several lakes in the area.  On our way to this 62 acre reservoir we explored the small and charming town of New Almaden.  The history of this small mining community and the structures that still remain from the mid-1800’s make for a fascinating auto tour.  We visited many of the well-marked red and white informational signs explaining about the area.  Almaden Reservoir is one of Santa Clara County's six original reservoirs, built in 1935, and is one of 10 current reservoirs operated by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. Able to store 1,590-acre feet of water, the reservoir, located 12 mile south of San Jose, produces about 4 percent of the district's local water supply and also provides water for groundwater recharge.

Its accompanying earth fill dam stands 110-feet tall with a crest of about 500-feet. Subject to safety regulations by the State Division of Safety and Dams (DSOD), Almaden Dam is currently considered a high-hazard dam due to the number of people who live in the potential flood zone downstream and the extensive amount of damage that a flood could cause in case of a dam breach.

The town of New Almaden was a company owned community owned and the quicksilver mine located in the Capitancillas range, is the oldest and most productive quicksilver (i.e., mercury) mine in the United States.   The site was known to the indigenous Ohlone Indians for its cinnabar long before a Mexican settler became aware of the ores in 1820. By the time they were identified as mercury, the mine was perfectly timed to supply the California Gold Rush. The mine ran intermittently through 1927 and eventually closed.  It was purchased by the county and is now part of Almaden Quicksilver County Park.

Calero Reservoir - Santa Clara County, California

Visited on 3/29/2019 during a weekend camping trip with Jeff and our two Chocolate labs, Summer and Skye.   The Santa Clara Valley Water District built the Calero Dam forming this 349 acre lake at an elevation of 365 feet above sea level.  The dam was built during the Great Depression, completing it in 1935 after acquiring land as the Santa Clara Valley Water Conservation District. The dam and reservoir is one of the six original reservoirs approved for construction by voters in May 1934.

Both dam and reservoir are located on Calero Creek. The 2.2-miles-long reservoir can store 9,934 acre-feet of water.  Calero Reservoir provides water directly to drinking water treatment plants, which treat and test it for safety. The district then distributes the water to water retailers to sell to the county’s 1.8 million residents. Calero also captures and stores winter runoff to recharge groundwater basins, helps store water from the nearby Almaden Reservoir watershed and accepts imported water.

The water district is currently in the midst of a seismic retrofit of the Calero Dam.