August 3, 2013 (Shasta Lake): Our next stop was the Shasta Lake area. We decided to take a tour of the Shasta Dam, the second largest dam in the US (The largest is Cooley Dam in Washington state). Here are the statistics of the dam:
   Height of structure: 602 feet (138.5 meters)
   Mass concrete: 6,541,000 cubic yards (5,001,000 cubic meters)
   Length of crest: 3460 feet (1,054.6 meters)
   Thickness at base with spillway apron: 883 feet (269.1 meters)\
   Thickness at crest: 30 feet (9.1 meters)
   Downstream face of dam: 31 acres in area
   Weight of dam: 15 million tons (13,607,777.1 hectares)
   Cost: $121,000,000

Shasta Dam is part of the Central Valley Project which is the largest and most elaborate water management and delivery system in the world. Shasta Dam is one of 20 dams and resevoirs in the CVP and delivers water throughout California's Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. These resevoirs can store 11 million acre-feet of water for delivery throughout the CVP. The water is used to irrigate over three million acres of farmland and of course it also generates electrical power from the water that flows through the pipes.

Below are pictures of the dam. The first picture is of a nest of two adult and one baby osprey that is located near the Visitor Center:
 

Osprey in nest

Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam tunnel at base of dam (going from Lake Shasta to other side)

Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam spillway (a Greyhound bus could drive through one of these!)

Shasta Dam generator (only 1/3 of each generator is visible)

Shasta Dam generator (only 1/3 of it is visible)

Mount Shasta