Along With Drop In Water Level, Lake Oroville Sees Drop In Labor Day Visitors
LAKE OROVILLE (CBS13) — Labor Day at the lake looks a lot drier this year. Water levels have dropped to historic lows at popular spots all over the region.
Lake Oroville is a spot that would normally see hundreds of visitors over the holiday weekend. But it was mostly empty.
"It's a ghost town," said Steve White, who was out visiting his houseboat.
The journey down is a long one. From the wide-open Lake Oroville Bidwell Canyon Marina entrance you descend, twisting and turning level by level until you finally reach a small narrow boat ramp.
"Usually you've got like hundreds of people out here, you're fighting for a parking spot," said Kathy Craw, a boater.
Now, the few people here are fighting to climb up and down the only path that takes you to a boat ramp.
"We just go to the houseboat and swim and paddle boat. You can't bring your ski boat out here because there's no place to launch," White said.
White said Labor Day weekend usually means music and loud noises until past ten o'clock. This year, neighbors are seeking each other out.
"Some people from another boat came over didn't know them. We partied a little bit," White said.
The park ranger told CBS 13 the water level drops a little bit every day.
Back on May 24th this year, people could still launch bigger boats. Just four months later, you now see islands where water once was.
"It's going to rain it will go back up we've seen it low before," White said.
Months ago many people saw their houseboats removed from the lake because of the low water level For some, that meant they didn't come to the lake at all this summer.