Lake Valley Reservoir – Kayaking

I really love finding new lakes to kayak when I travel. A few weeks ago, I was up at my best friend’s cabin in Truckee and I wanted to take out my kayak. While Donner Lake is the closest body of water to the cabin, I wanted to find one that was quieter. Looking for lakes where you can kayak, but no motorboats are allowed can be tricky, but there are surprisingly quite a few of these in California.

36957626_10106781250087293_8365421498793459712_n

View from my Oru. Photo credit: Lisette

Lake Valley Reservoir is one of these lovely, serene and isolated mountain lakes. Owned by PG&E, it’s located between Auburn and Truckee off Highway 80 just a few miles south of Yuba Gap. The Silvertip Picnic Area has a launch ramp for boats and requires a $5 per car fee (and $5 per boat launch fee). Bring cash – and exact change! There is a campground here, Lodgepole – also operated by PG&E. According to PG&E’s site, the campground will close early this year in mid-September and remain closed through the 2019 season for dam repairs, but will resume a normal schedule in 2020. There also appears to be a summer camp on the far end of the lake filled with energetic campers. They have a large lodge by the water, in addition to a private area of the lake with a climbing rock in the water and plenty of kayaks/boats.

36980915_10106781250122223_4907089062977863680_n

Enjoying the water. Photo credit: Mom

Lake Valley is a lovely place to kayak, it’s just big enough to provide a satisfying distance around the perimeter. I will caution visitors that the lake is full of submerged trees, so be wary (particularly around the edge) of hidden dangers. My Oru kayak is not terribly hearty, so I took extra care to avoid hazards.

36972281_10106781250067333_6933928806210076672_n

Dead trees are plentiful here. Photo credit: Lisette

The reservoir also was a popular spot for fishing, attracting a fair amount of anglers to the shores near the Silvertip picnic area.

36878574_10106781250112243_7939669396560019456_n

View of the lake, wouldn’t it be nice to camp on this little island? Photo credit: Lisette

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.