Glory Hole — Attraction in Vacaville

If you're in the area on Route 128 near Lake Berryessa in Northern California, the Monticello Dam is worth the road trip stop. The vista point is on Route 128 between the town of Rutherford and Interstate 505.

The dam overlook is right on Route 128. The dam is 26 miles long and 304 feet tall. The spillway hole is 246 feet deep and 72 feet in diameter. There is an information board providing the history of the dam. There is a concrete sidewalk that stretches a bit westward from the dam. If you follow that walkway, you can view the lake spillway hole. The hole is a constructed overflow outlet that looks like a big hole emerging from the lake. When the water level is higher than the height of the hole, the lake water drains into the hole. When I visited a few days ago, the lake level was low. So no draining water vortex effect.

Across the street is beautiful mountainside. Chiseled looking, beautiful exposed striations. The size and beauty makes one feel large and small in the same minute of time. The stretch of Route 128 is beautiful backcountry. But it's also desolate and two lanes with stretches of no shoulders or pull outs. I don't drive this stretch in the dark for various...

In a rare occurrence, the water level in the Lake Berryessa reservoir, 75 miles north of San Francisco, has risen so much that it is pouring into a 200ft-deep circular pipe constructed in its corner. The 72ft diameter pipe, known as Morning Glory Spillway, or simply Glory Hole, takes in water like a drain, once the reservoir is filled over capacity, and shoots it into a creek below the Monticello Dam.

Northern California has seen heavy precipitation for weeks. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes due to risks of floods near the town of Guerneville, and highways around the region have been shut down because of the downpours. Glory Hole wasn’t designed to spill over on a regular basis, though it has twice in the past two years, and previously in 2006 and 1996. The US Bureau of Reclamation built the hole in 1957 to take in water for storm events that it expected would occur every 50...

this glory hole isn’t just a marvel—it’s an experience. when the pressure builds, this hole opens wide and starts pulling with purpose. it doesn’t just take the water—it welcomes it, draws it in deep, inch by inch, until it’s swallowed whole. the suction is firm, unrelenting, like the hole was made to grip and take everything that's given to it. there’s no struggle, no resistance—just that smooth, hungry pull that knows exactly what to do. it’s tight where it counts, but once it opens up, it handles the flow like a champ. no hesitation, no limits. just pure, powerful intake. anyone who's watched it in action can tell you—this hole knows how...