oroville dam tour

BOUNDRIES  Beautiful Feather River, Washington Ave. & Oro Dam Blvd If your Business is within this area.  Feel free to email a picture of buisness, a short letter with your days, hours, and info about your business.

If you get the chance to spend some time in Butte County and specifically Oroville, CA You do not want to miss out on seeing  the items on the list below. There is much more to see than this list, so just ask for the rest.   Drive Over the Nation's Tallest Dam  -   Oroville Dam Follow Oro Dam Blvd. East or Follow the "Green Line" on Montgomery St. to the Dam. For more Info: 530-370-4606 The Dam was completed in 1968, it stands 770 feet high and is 6,920 feet across the top. It is the tallest and one of the largest earthen dams in the USA. Tailings from the gold dredging era make up most of the material used in construction. A picnic area overlooks the dam & has restroom facilities. The dam area is also a favorite of local swimmers. Beneath the dam, a cavern almost as large as the state capitol building has been hollowed out to house six power generation units. Coupled with four units in the Thermalito Power Plant, they generate more than 2.8 billion kilowatt-hours of power annually. Lake Oroville, which the dam created, has a surface area of 24 square miles and a shoreline of 167 miles, including many waterfalls in the Spring.

Walk Across California's  First Suspension Bridge Bidwell Bar Suspension Bridge South End of Lake Oroville in Bidwell Canyon Off Kelly Ridge Road In 1856, a suspension bridge was swung across the Feather River at Bidwell Bar, site of the county's first gold mining community. It's towers, manufactured in New York and brought around the Horn, the bridge was the first of it's type in California and was closed to traffic in 1954. Prior to the construction of Oroville Dam, the bridge was dismantled and relocated in Bidwell Canyon. The first Saturday of every May, the Bidwell Bar Day celebration is held here featuring demonstrations of pioneer crafts, gold panning, food and entertainment. The Toll House Museum there is open on Saturdays during the summer.

Great Camping & the Best Fishing in the State Lake Oroville Recreation Area east of Oroville, off Olive Hwy. (162) Campsite Reservations: 800-444-PARK (7275) Park Headquarters • 530-538-2200 www.dwr.water.ca.gov/lakeoroville Camping opportunities abound at this State Recreation Area, including boat-in campsites and ten two-tiered floating campsites, along with the more typical all-terrain and RV hookup sites. For marina information (houseboat & other boat rentals, etc.), please email us. If it's bass you're after, you'll be pleased to know that Bassmaster magazine ranks Lake Oroville as the "Best Bass Fishing Spot in California," and held a regional tournament here in November of 1999 and another in November 2001. And bass aren't the only type of fish you'll find. Coho salmon, catfish, mackinaw, and brown trout can all be found here.

See the House that Olives Built - Ehmann Home Lincoln at Robinson • 530-533-5316 Open for tours Thursdays, 11-3 Butte County Historical Society Museum 1749 Spencer Ave. • 530-533-9418 Sat. 11-3 Butte County Historical Society Archives 2335 Baldwin Ave. • 530-533-9418 Thurs.-Fri., 9-Noon Freda Ehmann, "Mother of the Ripe Olive Industry," and her son, Edwin, built this Colonial Revival Craftsman home in 1911 after she'd perfected a curing process for ripe olives and had markets across the nation. Edwin served as mayor here from 1919-23. Open for tours on Thursdays from 11-3, the home features lovely wainscoting, hardwood floors, fireplaces, intricate stained glass windows, and antique furniture including a Chickering piano that came around the Horn. The home is available for weddings & other events. BCHS Museum features rotating Collector's Corner exhibits. It houses Ishi's jailcell door, early gold scales, photographs, an amazingly detailed dollhouse, an Erle Stanley Gardner exhibit and many videos. Research assistance and sale of books, Diggin's (BCHS' quarterly publication), and Ehmann olives are offered at the Archives. Gifts are offered in all three venues.

Bike Along a River & Across a Dam 41-Mile Freeman Bicycle Trail 530-533-7885 Completed in 1996, this trail provides 41 miles of scenic off-road recreational riding for All Terrain Bicycles.  Over 30 miles of the trail are flat with some slightly rolling terrain. There are two steep grades within a 2-mile distance from Lake Oroville on each side of the Dam. In fact, the trail on the North side of the Dam was the site (1 of 7) of the California State Downhill Championship Series Race, a 1.5-mile single track trail with 37 turns and 750 feet of vertical drop. All segments of this exceptional trail have their own elements of beauty. Rolling oaks, scattered pines, beautiful meadows (filled with wildflowers in the Spring), creek crossings, panoramic views of Oroville, the Sacramento Valley, and the Sutter Buttes, lovely park, river, and afterbay scenes, and many species of birds are all found here.  Maps of the Freeman Bicycle Trail are available at Greenline Cycles, 1911 Montgomery (corner of Huntoon), at the Oroville Area Chamber of Commerce, 1789 Montgomery Street, and at the Lake Oroville Visitor's Center.

Watch the Trains Go By Western Pacific Brewing & Dining Oliver & High Sreets (530) 534-9101 Where better to watch the trains go by than in Oroville's original Western Pacific Railway Station? This beautiful structure has been lovingly restored and turned into a first-class restaurant and lounge. A wonderful, new, steam engine mural has just been painted on a wall in the entryway. If you're there when things aren't terribly busy, one of the staff members will enjoy telling you a little of the building's history, and we love the regular passing of the trains. Whenever you go, we suggest that you stay for a meal. We've left there smiling after each dining experience.

Welcome to Oroville, CA   USA email:    info@GatewayToOroville. com

or visit the Contact Us page  

Content copyright 2012.     www. GatewayToOroville.com   All rights reserved.

Exploring the Lake Oroville Complex – A One-of-a-Kind Opportunity at Clean Currents

June 21, 2022

Jeremy Chase-Israel, Content Development Specialist, NHA

NHA thanks our sponsors:

Alaska Regional

Clean Currents , the National Hydropower Association’s (NHA) annual waterpower trade show and conference, will take place in Sacramento, California, the week of October 17, 2022. The event offers a number of opportunities for attendees, such as connecting with peers from across the waterpower community, hearing from speakers tuned into innovative and visionary insights, and exploring the latest waterpower solutions from across the supply chain.

While there is a wealth of content at Clean Currents, NHA has coordinated with the California Department of Water Resources to put together the unique opportunity to experience one of California’s most important assets – the California State Water Project; the last day to reserve your spot on the tour is September 16th

Located 90 minutes north of Sacramento, the Oroville Complex is the heart of the California State Water Project, and it has a generating capacity of 925 MW. Recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers as one of the outstanding engineering achievements of the 20 th Century, the Lake Oroville Complex moves water from Lake Oroville and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to 750,000 acres of farmland, businesses throughout the state, and to 27 million Californians.

The tour kicks off on Monday, October 17th at 8:00 a.m. and spans notable sites across the Oroville Complex. Starting at the Lake Oroville Visitor Center, tour participants will have the opportunity to view exhibits on Lake Oroville hydropower and reservoir operations, watch a video on the Oroville Dam construction, and climb the 47-foot-high observation tower, which is renown for its unparalleled views of Oroville Dam, Lake Oroville, the Sierra Nevada range, and the Sutter Buttes.

For those interested in the Oroville Dam, the California Department of Water Resources, who is hosting the tour, will allow participants up-close access to the structure, which is the tallest dam in the United States at 770 feet high and nearly 7,000 feet in length. Included in the tour of the Oroville Dam are the spillways, which were reconstructed in 2017-2018, and the main spillway is over 3,000 feet long and 180 feet wide. Afterwards, the tour will move to the Edward Hyatt Powerplant, where participants will observe the three generating units and three pumping-generating units, which have the capability of generating up to 714 MW of clean hydropower.

The tour concludes with a visit to the Feather River Fish Hatchery, Fish Ladder, and Diversion Dam, where participants will be able to observe the diversion dam, hatchery, and raceways. The hatchery raises more than 8 million spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon annually, along with 450,000 steelhead. The fish are raised on-site until they’re large enough to be returned to the water.

With spots limited to a total of 60 people, and with a cost of $50 per person, the tour of the Lake Oroville Complex is not to be missed.

To learn more about the unique opportunity to visit one of California’s most critical waterpower resources, check out the site here or add the tour onto your Clean Currents 2022 registration .

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Oroville Dam: A tour of two spillways, phase two

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With half of the main spillway currently a work in progress, the department’s goal is to have the structure ready to use, if needed, by Nov. 1 — just under four months away.

This comes as the spillway split open on Feb. 7, 2017 and rapidly deteriorated, while DWR was forced to continue to use the damaged structure because of rising lake levels. A few days later, the reservoir reached its capacity of 901 feet and water flowed down the emergency spillway, then an entirely unlined hillside, for the first time in history.

At least 180,000 people were ordered to evacuate on Feb. 12 as the unlined hillside eroded and water inched uphill and there was fear that the dam itself could be compromised.

At 770 feet, the spillway stands as the tallest in the United States. It is as wide as two Golden Gate bridges or a 12-lane highway.

Last year, crews placed permanent concrete in its lower chute and temporary roller-compacted concrete, or RCC, in its middle chute, leaving the uppermost 730 feet alone. The upper and middle chutes are being redone this year. With a deadline of Nov. 1 set by DWR to prepare the structure for the rainy season, it’s all hands on deck.

The lead contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure West, Co. has about 550 craft workers and 145 support staff working on the project, with about 100 additional subcontractors, according to Jeff Petersen, vice president and executive director of Kiewit. While those employees have hailed from all around the country, more than half of the Kiewit workers are from Northern California, Petersen said.

Last year, work on the main spillway started from the bottom. For phase two, there is a top-down approach instead. DWR recently lowered lake levels so that crews could have easier access to the spillway through the radial gates, which are at 813 feet elevation.

“We’re probably approaching 50 percent complete on the job now,” Petersen said. “The focus for construction right now is to get the foundation covered with concrete in the upper chute. The foundation cleaning is near 100 percent complete. Once that concrete is complete, we’ll be switching over to drain line installation, anchor installation and then finally all of the erosion-resistant concrete slabs, and then the walls.”

One of the first concrete slabs installed last year had to be replaced this year because the finish wasn’t up to construction standards.

“It was hot and windy and the concrete set up on us before we could get the smooth finish, so we, with great effort, removed the top nine inches below the rebar and now it’s under cure,” Petersen said.

Erin Mellon, DWR’s assistant director of public affairs, added that the Board of Consultants, an independent group appointed by the department, commented on the great strength of the concrete. The board was able to observe crews remove the top of the slab with difficulty.

Now, most of the cement is being poured at night, as heat speeds up the curing process, said Tony Meyers, DWR’s Oroville spillways project manager. The slower concrete cures, the stronger it will be. The cement mix is checked almost daily, to ensure proper ratios. Adding liquid nitrogen helps cool the mixture down.

Workers have to take precautions for the intense summer heat. Surrounded by all that concrete, it can be 15-20 degrees hotter on the spillway than the surrounding areas, Petersen said. That means avoiding working during the hottest part of the day as much as possible, taking breaks in the shade and drinking lots of water.

“We do extensive training for our team so they know how to stay hydrated during the work shift and also what they’re supposed to be doing to take care of themselves when they’re not at work,” he said.

DWR is making several improvements to the emergency spillway, to prevent the kind of dangerous erosion like there was in February of 2017, in case water ever goes down the hillside again. Work at the emergency spillway will continue past Nov. 1. Kiewit’s contract runs through January 2019.

Whereas this time last year the emergency spillway was simply made up of a concrete weir at the top of the dam with an unlined hillside below, there are now thousands of cubic yards of concrete below that weir.

“At the very bottom of the emergency spillway is the secant pile cutoff wall — the round concrete-shaped piles that you can see the tops of right now,” Petersen said. “Those go down into the rock. They’re up to 100 feet deep but up to 60 feet deep in rock. The square concrete cap is placed on top of the secant pile wall.”

The wall will eventually be entirely underground. However, another means of deterring erosion will remain extremely visible. The emergency spillway is lined with RCC that is at least 10 feet thick, from the concrete weir at the top down to the cutoff wall. With steps all the way up the structure, it sort of looks like a huge amphitheater.

“The stair steps help with the cavitation features of the water,” the contractor’s executive director said. “They introduce air and a lot of hydraulic engineering so that water spilling over doesn’t cause damage.”

The splash pad will be anchored to the cutoff wall.

The final step for the emergency spillway will be construct an RCC buttress on top of the splash pad, adjacent to the emergency spillway weir, Petersen said. Its purpose is to reinforce the emergency spillway, Petersen said.

The buttress will be topped with erosion-resistant concrete, which is tougher than RCC, he added.

“It makes the weir bigger, stronger,” Petersen said. “I don’t think the weir would ever collapse. It’s like an extra wearing surface on the front of it.”

Despite all of this work, DWR hopes to never have to use the thing again. The emergency spillway is “like the lip of a bathtub,” said the department’s Erin Mellon. If the reservoir gets too full, water spills over — there is no on/off switch or lever to pull.

“You use the emergency spillway in the case of a maximum flood, Noah’s ark-type situation, when all the levies downstream are already blown out, you’re already at capacity flowing down the spillway and the lake is still rising … or in the situation like we had in February of 2017, when you have a problem and you need to use the emergency spillway,” Mellon said.

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Explore the Brad Freeman Trail in Oroville

The Brad Free­man Memo­r­i­al Bike Trail in Oroville is so much more than just a ​ “ trail.”

It’s a tour of Amer­i­can rail­road his­to­ry and of Cal­i­for­nia gold rush his­to­ry; of the high­est dam in the Unit­ed States and the linch­pin of the Cal­i­for­nia State Water Project ; of oak wood­lands, ripar­i­an wildlife areas, and Sacra­men­to Val­ley agriculture. 

Above all, though, the Brad Free­man Trail is a  41 -mile adven­ture around the Oroville area that offers a huge vari­ety of scenic vis­tas and day trip options for hik­ers and moun­tain bik­ers. Eques­tri­ans can also use por­tions of the trail, espe­cial­ly around the Ther­mal­i­to After­bay and south of the Ther­mal­i­to Diver­sion Pool. Although some may try to con­quer large parts of the trail in one trip, most vis­i­tors will explore short­er seg­ments of the trail. The trail itself is as var­ied as the scenery — with a com­bi­na­tion of paved and unpaved sur­faces, sin­gle­track, lev­ees, railbeds, and dirt roads.

Make sure to review hik­ing best prac­tices and trail eti­quette and fol­low Leave No Trace prin­ci­ples as you explore.

A Walk Across Oroville Dam

The high­est point of the Brad Free­man Trail is atop Oroville Dam . This sec­tion is paved and is approx­i­mate­ly one mile long between the upper dam over­look park­ing area (at the inter­sec­tion of Canyon Oaks Dri­ve and Roy­al Oaks Dri­ve) and the spill­way park­ing area. With Lake Oroville on one side and the Sacra­men­to Val­ley on the oth­er, the views are huge! Day use hours in the Lake Oroville State Recre­ation Area are gen­er­al­ly 8 am to sunset.

The Rail­way Tunnel

On the south side of the Ther­mal­i­to Diver­sion Pool, the Brad Free­man Trail fol­lows the path of the his­toric Feath­er Riv­er Route cre­at­ed by West­ern Pacif­ic Rail­road. You’ll be remind­ed of the ori­gin of this sec­tion of trail by the train tun­nel that you get to explore. The tun­nel is one mile north of the Lake­land Boule­vard park­ing area which con­nects to the Brad Free­man Trail via a short con­nect­ing trail. You can also access it by park­ing in the lot at the end of Old Fer­ry Road, just a few min­utes past the Feath­er Riv­er Nature Cen­ter. From there, it’s a  1 . 15 -mile walk until you reach the tun­nel. ( Map )

It’s about six miles to the Upper Dam Over­look park­ing area from Lake­land Boule­vard, and there’s a big climb of about 600  feet on the final approach to the dam area. It’s along this stretch that you may have a front row seat to watch the Oroville Dam spill­way in action. Hik­ers and eques­tri­ans have sev­er­al loop options that include the Dan Beebe Trail which ascends Sycamore Hill for won­der­ful views.

Sights in the City of Oroville

Just upstream of where Table Moun­tain Boule­vard cross­es the Feath­er Riv­er (on the east­ern shore), the Brad Free­man Trail enters the City of Oroville and pass­es by the Feath­er Riv­er Nature Cen­ter , which is open dai­ly from sun­rise to sun­set. The near­by Bath­house Muse­um is open April through Octo­ber on Sat­ur­days and Sun­days 12  –  4 pm. This area is also just across the riv­er from the Feath­er Riv­er Fish Hatch­ery and bar­ri­er dam, so you may see salmon jump­ing! Down­stream of Table Moun­tain Boule­vard and Wash­ing­ton Avenue, a two-mile sec­tion of the Brad Free­man Trail fol­lows the Feath­er Riv­er through Bedrock Park and River­bend Park . Down­town Oroville is with­in a short walk or ride as well. 

Dis­tance Tour of the Oroville Wildlife Area

The Brad Free­man Trail align­ment cross­es the Feath­er Riv­er over High­way 162 and quick­ly heads south into the Oroville Wildlife Area . The next 16  miles are gen­er­al­ly along dirt access roads (next to gold min­ing dredge tail­ings) and lev­ee tops (around the Ther­mal­i­to After­bay ). The abun­dant water along this route should sure­ly treat you to a fair dose of wildlife encoun­ters. There are trail­head access points for this sec­tion along East Hamil­ton Road, Toland Road, and Tres Vias Road.

Around the Ther­mal­i­to Forebay

A three-mile sec­tion of the Brad Free­man Trail con­nects the South Ther­mal­i­to Fore­bay pic­nic and boat launch area with the North Ther­mal­i­to Fore­bay which includes the Fore­bay Aquat­ic Cen­ter . The por­tion of trail north of the Ther­mal­i­to Fore­bay is espe­cial­ly scenic in the spring with lots of wild­flow­ers! Each side of the Ther­mal­i­to Fore­bay has restroom ameni­ties and day-use park­ing. This sec­tion of the Brad Free­man Trail is open to moun­tain bik­ers and hikers.

North Side of the Ther­mal­i­to Diver­sion Pool

The access for this wood­ed seg­ment of the Brad Free­man Trail is off of Chero­kee Road, 1 . 2  miles north of the inter­sec­tion with Table Moun­tain Boule­vard. The wide grav­el trail (Bur­ma Road) con­tin­ues for about 3 . 5  miles back towards Oroville Dam with great views of the sur­round­ing foothills. The trail has his­tor­i­cal­ly linked with the top of the Oroville Dam spill­way area; how­ev­er parts of the trail in this area may be closed peri­od­i­cal­ly dur­ing work on the spillway.

Fea­tur­ing lake views, the North Ther­mal­i­to Diver­sion Pool Sec­tion of the trail is a pop­u­lar hik­ing, moun­tain bik­ing, and kayak­ing spot — so feel free to enjoy the easy out-and-back hike and then try your hand at your own mini triathlon. Or just enjoy the hike. We won’t judge. 

Mod­i­fi­ca­tion: For anoth­er easy hike, check out the south­ern side of the Ther­mal­i­to Diver­sion Pool sec­tion, which runs par­al­lel to the Dan Beebe Trail and takes you through an old train tunnel.

Trail Dif­fi­cul­ty : Easy

Trail Length &  Type : 6 . 4  miles out-and-back

Best Used : Acces­si­ble year-round

Dogs: Not allowed

Trail Map : All­Trails

Oth­er Links: Inter­ac­tive Oroville Recre­ation Map

Direc­tions

From CA- 70 take exit 48 for Nel­son Ave. Take Chero­kee Rd. to Brad Free­man Trail. Pass Thomp­son Flat Ceme­tery Rd. on your right. The road will begin to curve and you will pass Thomp­son Flat Rd. on your left. Soon after pass­ing Thomp­son Flat Rd. look for a sharp turn on your right with a sign say­ing Lake Oroville State Recre­ation Area Ther­mal­i­to Diver­sion Pool. 

The road to turn off is unmarked but the sign is clear. Turn left once you reach the grav­el road and dri­ve all the way to the gate, or park on any of the turn offs along the way. (Note GPS might take you to Thomp­son Flat Ceme­tery Road, do not turn on this road, you are close, keep going straight on Chero­kee Road and fol­low sign.)