Oroville Dam — Local services in Oroville

Hadn't been to the dam in a long time. Its was a neat experience but leaves some questions. The viewpoint from on top of the nearby hill is great, and the drive across the dam was a bit unnerving as there isn't much of a barrier from the edges yet lots of little kids on scooters or running along while their parents walked with seemingly with no concern. Might just be my fear of heights. 😉 The boat launch area is nice. There is a CHP kiosk that stops you before you enter the actual boat launch area park and parking lot, and then another pay station that is currently self-pay. I believe it was $8/day. The bathrooms were locked up tight but there was one portapotty (wheelchair accessible). There were a couple informational boards that talked about the new spillway, but nothing that mentioned the old spillway failure and near catastrophe a few years ago. Also the strange looking emergency spillway left us wondering about the design. Google might have the answers - we did find lots of articles about the...

I can’t speak more highly of this monumental feat of engineering. To stand at the feet of this colossus is to be humbled by ones own insignificance. There are those who only see a mound of clay and rock, yearning to split at the seams and wash away the iniquities of Oroville. Yet when I look upon it I see only beauty. From the lush green spot on its face, weeping for those who live fearfully in its shadow, to the yawning mud hole behind it, a poignant memory of its once emerald waters.

Today one can only marvel upon it from a safe (hopefully) distance as it is currently off limits to its worshipful denizens. Yet, only from afar can one appreciate its scale as its surface crawls with laborers, like industrious ants, desperately trying to spackle over its glaring design flaws. Turning ones back on the majesty of this dam is kind of like turning your back on a Kodiak bear: one hears a grumble build into a roar, turns and, as the darkness overwhelms, realizes...

A GREAT PLACE TO WATCH THE SUNSET, RIDE BIKES, GO FOR HIKES, WALK THE DAM, GO BOATING, SKIING OR FISHING. DESPITE WHAT PEOPLE SAY OR THINK THESE DAMS ARE AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY TO CONTROL FLOODING WHEN MANAGED PROPERLY. IF THIS DAM WASNT HERE MOST TOWNS DOWNSTREAM WOULD HAVE BEEN GONE MANY TIMES OVER. DO YOUR RESEARCH PEOPLE. Oroville Dam is an earthfill embankment dam on the Feather River east of the city of Oroville, California, in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of the Sacramento Valley. At 770 feet (235 m) high, it is the tallest dam in the U.S.[8] and serves mainly for water supply, hydroelectricity generation and flood control. The dam impounds Lake Oroville, the second largest man-made lake in the state of California, capable of storing more than 3.5 million acre feet (1.1 trillion US gallons; 4.3...