TRAVEL: The California Delta

The go-to place for L.A. when we need water, right? Family recently moved to a delta town and gave me a chance to discover this fascinating part of our state.

 The California Delta is formed by the Sacramento River in the north and the San Joaquin in the south.  The rivers enter a massive placenta of sloughs, streams, and levees before broadening into bays and lakes to reach the Pacific. Fitted between them are islands, some reclaimed, that are among the richest agricultural land in the U.S.

It's 1,100 square miles, and over 50% of California's water passes through it. The islands and streams have over 700 miles of levees maintaining water levels.  Pumps called "spuds" pipe water into ditches that spread  over the 57 islands.

A wonderful old rotating-style drawbridge gives entry to the town of Rio Vista. 

Large, flat areas seem to be mainland but are actually large islands.

PRO photo

The road is a ribbon atop the levees.

PRO photo

 Several small ferries go back and forth across them

making it easy to cross the waterways rather than drive to the end of one and go back along the other side, though that's fun, too.



Huge pumps at the southern end withdraw millions of gallons of water daily for delivery to the Central Valley and Southern California. Their suction disrupts the natural east to west flow of the water to north to south.  This increases water salinity and is endangering the Delta smelt, as well as degrading soil quality.

Agriculture is a $500 million a year industry in the Delta. Sugar beets, alfalfa, safflower, onions, tomatoes, asparagus, walnuts, corn, fruits. Former walnut orchards are now being removed for vineyards.

And it's windy. The hot interior valley's proximity to cool San Francisco Bay creates dependable breezes, and clean white windmills seem to be everyplace: visible from restaurant windows, the golf course, and home kitchens, Somehow, despite the futuristic look they give the farm landscape, the turning mills are clean and attractive.  They seem steady and positive, the whirling blades hypnotic.

A few old towns remain, and one ghost town, Locke. Locke was built by Chinese immigrants for themselves, after their settlement in Walnut Grove burned. It's tiny, one narrow street set down below and parallel to the levee. Mostly empty now, there's a gambling house, Chinese school, an herbalist, and other shops.


Besides the ghost town, there's a mansion, built in Italian Renaissance style by wealthy San Franciscan Louis Meyers, an orchardist, and his wife Audrey, heir to a department store fortune.  

Guests motored up the delta waterway from San Francisco in summer. Now it's a wedding site and Sunday brunch can be had.  



On the way home, I spotted a farmer selling corn off the back of his truck.  I insisted we stop and for dinner that night we had some of the best corn ever.