The Gray's Wild Adventures: Day Seven

We had a wonderful day touring the Shasta Lake Caverns and Dam. We took so many pictures we tried to condense it down into a couple of slideshows. The Cavern tour started with a boat ride across the lake and then a short bus ride part way up the side of the mountain to the cave entrance. The cave was first discovered in 1878 by a hunter, but the lower caverns weren't discovered until the 1950s. It was amazing walking through the different rooms and looking at the stalictites, stalicmites & other "ites" :) Unfortunately when we got to the cathedral room at the end of the tour our battery had already died. The ceiling in the cathedral room was almost 150 feet high!

After touring the caverns we went to the Shasta Dam. We drove across the dam and on the far side they have set aside a 52,000 acre area for Off-Highway-Vehicles: quads, dirtbikes, etc. They also have horseback riding and mountain bike trails along the Sacramento River and a campground. We then took a guided tour through the dam with two fantastic tour guides. One was a heavy-set black lady who was absolutely hysterical! The elevator ride down into the dam dropped 48 stories in 55 seconds which the kids thought was pretty cool. As you can see from the photos the lake level is very low and it was also interesting to learn that the lake gets so warm they have to take water from the bottom of the lake to keep the river cool enough for the salmon. It was very interesting to learn how the dam works and how it was built. The old rusty structure you see in the slide show is what remains of the tower base that was used in the construction of the dam.