Diablo Dam - I Can See Gatsby Standing There

 I didn't mean for all those posts o go all at once yesterday.  Sorry for th information overload!

One of my most favorite things of the trip was the Diablo Lake and Dam.  It looked like it dropped right out of the 1920's.  I could picture the Flapper Girls sashaying along the top of the dam.  F. Scott Fitzgerald in his tux waits at one end for Greta Garbo with her sparkles and ostrich boas.

I could see that despite the rain hitting me in the face and my raincoat hood turned against the cold.

Check it out.  Can you see the ghosts of the 20's in there?

The dam was about one and a half car widths across the top, so I got out and walked while Frank obsessed with getting to the other side without meeting another vehicle or me being kidnapped, raped or worse.  I made it just fine, thank you very much.  Not sure about Frank though. 

There were others doing the same thing, walking the bridge while the significant other drove across expeditiously.  I think that is Frank driving away in that weird Cadillac. 

But you can begin to see the lanterns that were so incredibly wonderful.

Diablo Dam is a  gravity arch dam over 1100 feet long and 389 feet high.

This is from the top of the dam about midway looking down into the valley.  I don't like heights so I just put the camera over the side, holding on to it with a deathgrip.  I took 5 or 6 pictures to make sure I got a good one. 

that is the sluice where the water flows down. 

the water was rushing so quickly it created lots of what looked like steam but was really mist, like at Niagara Falls.

This looking down the valley from the opposite side of the dam.

 This is the deck.  See the track?  This rail car crane rides along the track and opens the barriers to allow more water to flow or closes them for
less.   that black thing is my lovely camera strap.














These are the wicket gates.  If you look closely you can see how that rail crane works with the wicket gates.

In the water is pollen from the pine family. 


Here is another way they open one of the gates.  This was on the side where we first entered the dam.

I love cool machinery! there's that industrial thing again.

One of my favorite photos with the lamp against the valley and the mountain in the distance.  Imagine if  we had sun.........it would be incredible.

The paths on the far side of the dam are just like the ones with the water rushing down making he mist on this side that I didn't lean over to get the photo of.

This is the reservoir created by the dam and a great view of Ruby  Mountain in the distance. 

Diablo Lake reservoir covers 980 acres and has a capacity of 88,500 cubic acres of water.

The Dam was completed in 1930 but didn't begin to generate electricity until 1936.

I really loved this dam!

And it has to be because of those lights!

I still have photos of Juneau AK and the Buchart  Gardens in Victoria Canada.