Big Creek

 

 

The little town of Big Creek is like something out of a Hayao Miyazaki movie.  This little company town that was built to service the Southern California Edison Big Creek Hydropower Project is perched on a huge granite dome down in the canyon where Big Creek runs.  At the very tip of the granite dome there is a fire fighting base with a helipad.

At one point in the last 20 or 30 years, there were over 300 people here.  Wikipedia puts it more at around 175 now.

The old general store is available for purchase.

The church on the main drag.

This is the Big Creek Powerhouse #1.  There are swastikas on some of the old penstock pipes that were produced in Germany prior to World War I.  Pretty amazing the history in this place.

The powerhouse makes an incredible deep humming rumble.

Vermilion Valley Hydroelectric Project

We went up to Lake Thomas A Edison and the Vermilion Valley Hydroelectric Project run by Southern California Edison.  I’ve never been here before.  The Vermilion Valley was flooded out by the dam when it was completed.

The resort at one end of the lake runs a boat during the summer to the other end of the lake for hikers.  It cuts off about a half day of hiking to get up to the Pacific Crest Trail.

Looking back toward the Kaiser Peaks Wilderness area and the way we came from.