Water and Wine

We went to visit the Diamond Valley Lake south of Hemet with our friends Lois and Gerry.  This lake is part of a system that stores and distributes water to Southern California. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 city and public water agencies that serve 19 million people in 6 counties.  Water from Northern California and the Colorado River is transported to supplement local supplies.  In addition to its on-going role in water supply, the lake provides a 6 month supply of water in case of an earthquake on the west coast.  The lake has a 264 billion gallon capacity. 

The lake is multi-use, with boating and fishing allowed.  Around the edges there are extensive hiking and equestrian trails.  There is also a Visitors’ Centre and a Center for Archaeology and Paleontology.  Some amazing fossils were found during construction of the dams and the lake, including mammoths, mastodons and a giant long-horned bison.

You can see the Saddle Dam on the left.   The Saddle Dam fills in a gap in the hills and forms the northern boundary of the reservoir. It is 130 feet high and half a mile across. 

The dams are amazing.  They are made of nearly 110 million cubic yards of clay, sand and rock.  There are three dams and they comprise the largest earth and rock fill dam project in the United States. Besides the Saddle Dam, the East Dam is 2.2 miles across and is 180 feet high.  The third one is 1.9 miles wide and 280 feet high.  You can see the canals spreading out from the area, heading south towards San Diego.

The following day we did a little wine tour near Temecula which is south of Hemet where we are staying.  There are over 30 wineries in the area but we only hit three.  We contained ourselves!!  The wines were very good and we took a few to sample before we cross the border in early April.  They are much like the wineries in Kelowna and are beginning to have bistros and restaurants,   just like in BC.

I like the size of the bottle in the foreground!!

These are the vineyards of the Wiens winery that we liked the best of the three.  They, of course, are not green because of the time of year.  The winery had a nice tasting room and just seemed more hospitable.  Plus we got a free wine glass.  I should mention that tastings are $10-15 at the Temecula wineries.  We shared a glass because it seemed so pricey.  We haven't done the Kelowna wineries for a few years now but they at least used to take the price of the tasting (if they charged at all) off the price of any bottles you bought.  I think they did that in Washington State as well.

Off to Vegas next.  I want to see the old Strip.