Aquafornia's best pictures (so far ...)
Slideshow by Aquafornia
These are some of my favorite pictures...
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LA Aqueduct Cascades
This iconic well-known piece of water infrastructure is at the top of the San Fernando Valley, near the intersection of I-5 & SR-14, and is where the water from the Owens Valley Aqueduct comes into the Los Angeles area.
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Owens Valley, north of Bishop
The water tumbling down the Cascades originates from the Owens River in the Owens Valley. This picture is from just north of the town of Bishop.
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Los Angeles Aqueduct Intake
This is where the water from the Owens Valley enters the LA Aqueduct on it's way to Southern California. It's the original intake for the aqueduct built in 1911, and is still used today.
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Los Angeles Aqueduct at Jawbone Canyon
Mulholland's system utilizes gravity to bring the water south. It travels through 24 miles of unlined open channels, 37 miles of lined open channels, 97 miles of concrete conduit, 43 miles of tunnels, 12 miles of steel and concrete pipe, 8 miles of reservoirs, 2 miles through the Haiwee bypass, and 10 miles through power tunnels and waterways to reach Los Angeles. This is a picture of the pipeline through Jawbone Canyon.
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Alabama Gates
The Alabama Gates were the scene where the residents of Owens Valley rebelled against the DWP, seizing control of the gates and sending the water back into the Owens River. The residents kept control of the gates for several days; families arrived with food and a mariachi band from a nearby movie set came and performed.
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Owens Lake
Once big enough that a steamer traveled back and forth across it, Owens Lake was dry by the 1930's. The dried lake bed has been the source of the worst particulate pollution in the U.S., and DWP is under court order to perform dust control mitigation measures on 14,000 acres of lake bed.
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Mono Lake Tufa
One of the unique features of Mono Lake is the tufa formations (pronounced too-fah). They are limestone formations that form from underwater springs rich in calcium that mixes with the carbonate-rich lake water. The result is calcium carbonate, or limestone.
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Mono Lake
The calcium carbonate settles around the spring, and over the course of decades or longer, a tufa tower will grow.
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Mono Lake Tufa
The greatest concentration of tufa formations is on the south side of Mono Lake. Tufa towers grow only underwater, sometimes to heights of over 30 feet.
The reason you can see so much tufa around Mono Lake today is because the lake level fell dramatically after DWP began water diversions in 1941.
DWP is under mandate to restore lake levels to a particular level, still many years off, and can only divert limited amounts of water until then.
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Palo Verde Diversion Dam
This is where water from the Colorado is diverted into the canal to irrigate the Palo Verde Valley (located near Blythe).
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Parker Dam
Parker Dam was built between 1934 & 1938 by the Bureau of Reclamation, creating Lake Havasu, a reservoir that is 45 miles long and capable of storing 211 billion gallons of water.
Lake Havasu provides water for Metropolitan's Colorado River Aqueduct and the Central Arizona Project.
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Colorado River Aqueduct
The Colorado River Aqueduct, completed in 1941, delivers Colorado River water 242 miles to Lake Matthews in Southern California.
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Imperial Dam
This is the Imperial Dam, where water is diverted into the All-American Canal.
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All American Canal at Imperial Dam
Over 3.5 million acre-feet - IID's entitlement as well as the Coachella Valley's, comes through the Imperial Dam. It is an amazing amount of water that travels through this piece of infrastructure.
This water is headed for desilting basins, where the silt will be allowed to settle before heading off to the Imperial Valley and beyond.
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Hanlon Headgate
When I traveled to Yuma last year, I had hoped to find the spot where the Colorado River was breached and the Salton Sea was formed. This is the closest thing I could find. This is the Hanlon Headgate, built by Rockwood's California Development Company in 1905. It was used to deliver water to the Imperial Valley until 1942, when the All-American Canal was completed.
This is right next to the border, just outside of Yuma.
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Salton Sea
The eerie and strangely beautiful yet unsettling strange and smelly Salton Sea.
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California Delta
The Delta is located east of the San Francisco Bay Area at the confluence of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers. The Delta forms the eastern portion of the San Francisco Estuary, which includes the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bays. The Delta encompasses 738,000 acres, stretching inland nearly 50 miles. It includes portions of Sacramento and West Sacramento at its northern point, down to Tracy at its southern point, and spanning 25 miles from Antioch to Stockton.
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Three Mile Slough
The Delta is a maze of over 700 miles of waterways that traverse prime farmland and natural habitat areas, with levees surrounding numerous islands. The levees provide valuable habitat for wildlife, and the channels provide passageways for fish and boats and the water that flows to the export pumps.
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Old train bridge in Delta
The Delta has many funky looking bridges, like this train bridge by Bullfrog Landing.
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House on a house
Flooding is not an unusual here, so some people in the Delta are prepared for anything!
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O'Neill Forebay
Water from the California Aqueduct enters the O'Niell Forebay through these huge gates.
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Central Valley Irrigation
The San Joaquin Valley is one of the nation's most productive agricultural regions.
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Semitropic Water Bank
This picture is from part of the Semitropic Water Bank in the south San Joaquin Valley.
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Lake Tahoe
One of my favorite places in the world, this picture is from the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
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American River
Here's the American River, taken somewhere down the 49, south of Auburn.
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Walker River
The Walker River, just south of the town of Walker, which is up the 395 close to the California/Nevada border.
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Placerita Canyon stream
This is in Placerita Canyon, which is located near Santa Clarita.
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Elderberry Forebay at Castaic Lake
This is the forebay to the power plant at the top of Castaic Lake.
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Getty Center
The Getty Center and gardens. A great place to go - and amazingly, it's free!
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Neon Guitar at City Walk
This is the giant neon guitar outside of the Hard Rock Cafe at Universal's City Walk.