Thursday, November 24, 2011

habitat ~ 11/24/11 ~ San Luis Reservoir State Rec Area

San Luis Reservoir State Recreation Area
November 24, 2011

This is not exactly "Over the River and through the Woods"; it's more over the reservoir and through the valley to family's houses we go. Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day! Since most of my extended family still lives in the Central Valley, this is the usual route to go see them or to pass through to Yosemite. No, we didn't stop, nor have I ever stopped since it's usually very windy through Pacheco Pass. I figured my picture from the car and this blog is a good enough excuse to actually look up information on this reservoir and the surrounding area that I've passed many, many times since I was a kid and never even knew the name. If Wikipedia is correct, the San Luis Reservoir is "the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States." Who knew? In the distance are numerous wind turbines, which are situated on another CA State Park property, Pacheco State Park. Thanks to revenue from the wind turbines, Pacheco is one of the few State Parks supposedly with enough funds for maintenance. What a great idea! Both State Park embedded links above have decent historical information.

ps 01/04/12 - Based on comments below, found this article from Forbes on endangered CA condors and wind turbines. Something to think about.