Lake Shasta The Lake

Lake Shasta - The Lake

The Central Valley Project developed in northern California during the 1930s is the background history of Lake Shasta, a reservoir created by building the curved gravity concrete Shasta Dam between 1938 and 1945. This reservoir was called Lake Shasta, featured as a recreational boating area.

Shasta Dam is located on the Sacramento River, just above the city of Redding, measuring 602 feet high and 3,460 feet long. The greatest depth is 517 feet, and the total drainage area is 4,110,000 acres, with average annual flow of 6.2 million acre feet. When the dam is full, the reservoir contains enough water to cover all the state of Connecticut to a depth of 1.5 feet.

Lake Shasta is one of the few lakes in California where visitors are allowed camping along the shore and having a campfire, although a permit is required (Read the FAQs section). Another peculiarity of Shasta Lake is boat-in camping, with some campgrounds in secluded areas where only boats can reach.

There is a hydroelectric power plant located below the dam and one of the biggest in California. Lake Shasta is by itself the second largest lake in California, after Lake Tahoe, and it is higher than the Washington Monument. The lake's capacity is of 4,552,000 acre-feet, equivalent to 5.6 km cubic.

Lake Shasta is also three times the height of Niagara Falls, and it is located 10 miles north of the city of Redding, bordering with the town of Lakehead on the northern shore. Another trivia fact is that Shasta Dam has enough concrete to build a sidewalk 4 inches thick and 3 feet wide around the world at the Equator.

Actually, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is investigating the enlargement of Shasta Dam and its Reservoir as a viable way to increase and improve overall water supply reliability, and the cold water for lower Sacramento River. Lake Shasta is popular for boating, fishing, waterskiing, and camping.

The lake has 365 miles of shoreline, mostly steep mountainous terrain with manzanita and evergreen trees. The confluence of the Rivers Sacramento, Pit and McCloud, in addition to other smaller tributaries, make Lake Shasta a popular fishing spot, mainly for cold water fish species.

Avid anglers can get good catches of carp, chinook salmon, black fish, channel squawfish, Sacramento squawfish, Sacramento sucker, brown trout, rainbow trout, black crappie, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, spotted bass, hardhead minnow, bluegill, riffle sculpin, threadfin shad, green sunfish, golden shiner, brown bullhead, white catfish, and white sturgeon.

Lake Shasta offers several public boat ramps for boating, fishing, picnicking, and camping, some of them with restrooms:

- Antlers, exit I-5 at one-half mile Antlers Road, on the upper Sacramento River Arm.

- Bailey Cove, exit I-5 at O'Brien, toward Shasta Caverns Road, and one mile to Bailey Cove Road.

- Centimudi, northwest Shasta Lake City and near Shasta Dam.

- Hirz Bay, exit I-5 at Gilman Road, 10 miles to Hirz Bay, on the upper McCloud River Arm.

- Jones Valley, exit at Mountain Gate or Oasis Road, then 9 miles east to Bear Mountain Road, on the Pit River Arm.

- Packers Bay, exit at O'Brien, then southbound 1-5, or exit at Packers Bay Road one mile, on the Lower Pit River Arm.

- Sugarloaf exit I-5 at Lakeshore Drive, left two miles, in the Sugarloaf area of Lakehead on the Upper Sacramento River Arm.

There are other commercial boat ramps in the Lake Shasta area, including those at Antlers Resort, Bridge Bay Resort, Digger Bay Marina, Holiday Harbor, Lakeview Marina Resort, Shasta Marina, and Silverthorn Resort.

Lake Shasta is also home to different fishing events, such as the Annual Kokanee Power Spring Trout and Salmon Derby, the Tournaments and Trout Derbys, and the Shasta Lake Trout Derby.

For other events and fishing programs, you can contact the Fisheries Programs Branch, 1416 Ninth Street, Sacramento, California 95814, Tel. (916) 445-3417, Fax (916) 445-4044, Lake and Reservoir Project, Tel. (916) 358-2847, (916) 358-2547

Other featured areas within the Lake Shasta region are the Salt Creek Area, with camping facilities and RV parks, the Gilman Road Area, providing secluded access to the McCloud Arm of Lake Shasta, and the O'Brien Area, located in the hub of the lake, and providing privileged central access to all Shasta's arms.

Lake Shasta is not only considered the jewel of Northern California, but also the “Houseboat Mecca of the World”, with over 400 rental houseboats collectively from the lake's 10 marinas, the largest fleet on any lake in the United States, featuring floating campers, pontoons, or what is considered the equivalent of a luxury condominium.

During summer, temperatures of the lake averages 77º Fahrenheit , providing the perfect setting for water sports, swimming, tubing, wakeboarding, waterskiing, kayaking, canoeing and rafting. The Sacramento arm is the favorite and most favored for these activities, although all the arms have areas suited for most water sports.