Tag: Douglas Lake

Lake level check. Morning after a night of heavy rains.

As TVA is bringing up our lake levels we had widespread heavy rains last night. It will take days for the rain to drain down into the lake but that should jump up the levels. These were taken the morning of 4/3/2014. I’ll try to add some more pics in about a week or so.

I took 4 pictures and let Google+ stitch them into a panoramic view of our little slice of the lake.

panoramic view of the lake channel behind our house.
Our lake level should jump up over the next few days. We had heavy storms through much of the night and it takes a few days to drain down into the lake. It should be fun to see how fast the lake rises. Taken 4/3/2014

Oh Dam

Given the high levels of the lake we made a trip out to see the dam. We were curious to see how close to the top the water was.

Dam on Douglas Lake
Downstream side of the dam on Douglas Lake

Coming up on the dam from the overlook side it’s hard to tell how close to the top the water on the other side is.

Campgrounds in danger of flooding next to the dam on Douglas Lake
Campgrounds in danger of flooding next to the dam on Douglas Lake

Closer still you notice the campgrounds. Better have your sleeping bag on an air mattress.

High water starting to flood the campgrounds near the dam
Flooding is starting in the campgrounds.
High but still water held back by the dam
The lake side of the dam on Douglas Lake

Over on the lake side you can start to get a feel for the height.

Structures on the dam by the generator intake
Structures on the dam by the generator intake
Close up of water against the dam
Close up of water against the dam

We hope to go back and get pictures here at normal and then winter low levels for comparison

View across the lake from the dam's overlook
View across the lake from the dam’s overlook

While on the overlook side we went up to take advantage of the long range view.

View of the dam, lake, and mountains from the overlook on the dam at Douglas Lake
Zooming in on the overlook view

Man I love this area for its views as well as the people and fantastic motorcycle roads.

View of the dam from the bridge over the tailwater.
Driving by below the dam

Heading over to the campground to see from water level what things look like. This is from the bridge over the French Broad river just below the dam. The other side of the bridge shows another campground being flooded by the amount of water they’re releasing.

Downstream campgrounds seen from the bridge below the dam
Downstream campgrounds seen from the bridge below the dam

Then we got to the campground on the lake side that we showed earlier. Here’s some of the campground and some of the dam beyond. Try to notice the crow on the railing to get a sense of scale and how close to the top the water is.

The view of the dam from the campground next to the lake.
The view of the dam from the campground next to the lake.
Showing the water level against the dam.
Showing the water level against the dam.

That’s a lot of water. It rained hard later this day and more the next.