Sawyer Camp Trail is a six mile paved trail along Crystal Springs Reservoir, a very beautiful body of water lying in a rift valley of the San Andreas Fault. We were painting from the trail on top of the North American Plate and looking across the water to the handsome trees and ridges on the Pacific Plate. The reservoir was created back in the 1880's when a dam was built across San Mateo Creek. After the 1906 earthquake, San Francisco reached beyond the Bay Area to use Yosemite NP's Hetch Hetchy Valley as a reservoir to increase its municipal water supply. Spring snowmelt from the Sierra Mountains now fills the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and it is piped by gravity to the Bay Area where it is used by San Francisco and by customers in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo Counties. The location where Hetch Hetchy water flows into Crystal Springs Reservoir at its most southern tip is marked by the Greek-styled Pulgas Water Temple which some of our artists visited at the end of our paintsite.
It was easier to drive to the Sawyer Camp Trail because the bridge over the renovated Crystal Springs Dam finally opened in 2019 after having been closed since 2010. The Sawyer Camp Trail does not have much shade which we noticed because it was a very warm day with very little breeze. Some of us picked the best lookout and just sat in the sun, others started out in the shade with a good viewpoint and stuck it out as the earth turned and the shade disappeared, others picked a shady spot despite not having the best view. Instead of walking the entire six mile trail, we just headed up the trail until we found our painting spot.
For more information on the Sawyer Camp Trail along Crystal Springs Reservoir see:
https://parks.smcgov.org/sawyer-camp-segment
For more photos from our paintsite, see Edward Rooks's Flickr album:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/edwardrooks/sets/72157711487250966/
Upcoming paintsites: See the SCVWS
website or the October and November Newsletters for details.
- Thursday, Oct 31, Triton Museum Grounds, Santa Clara
- Thursday, Nov 7, Bear Creek Redwoods Preserve, Los Gatos
- Thursday, Nov 14, To be announced
- Saturday, Nov 16, Folger Estate, Woodside
- Thursday, Nov 21, View of Hayes Mansion from Edenvale Gardens Regional Park, San Jose
Artists and their artwork:
Sawyer Camp Trail and Lower Crystal Springs Reservoir
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| Looking south over the Crystal Springs reservoir |
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| A view of the reservoir looking northwest |
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| Kaaren |
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| Kaaren's watercolor of hikers on the Sawyer Camp Trail |
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| Elaine |
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| Elaine's painting of pampas grass bordering the reservoir |
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| Carol taking advantage of one of the few shady spots on the trail |
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| Carol's painting of the view looking northwest |
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| Linda and Edward |
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| Edward's painting of the Crystal Springs Reservoir |
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| Linda's painting of the Crystal Springs Reservoir |
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| Indira |
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| Indira's painting of the reservoir |
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| John |
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| John's watercolor of Crystal Springs Reservoir |
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| Jane |
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| Joe |
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| Joe's watercolor painted on the lower path leading the newlookout |
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| Lauren |
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| Lauren's watercolor of the reservoir |
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| Lora's watercolor looking southwest |
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| Broncha's watercolor of the reservoir |
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| Lorraine |
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| Lorraine's watercolor capturing the light reflecting off the reservoir |
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| Mary |
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| Marilyn |
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Marilyn's painting of one of the trees along the trail
which provided very welcome shade
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Linda's painting of the trees along the trail
with Marilyn sitting in the shade and painting
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| Mindy |
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| Mindy's painting of a headland and the west shore of the reservoir |
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| Sham |
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| Sham's watercolor also looking west across the reservoir |
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| Susan B-G |
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| Susan's B-G's view of the reservoir and headland |
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| Pam's painting of a view across the reservoir |
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| Tanvi |
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| Wanda's painting of deer on the edge of the reservoir |
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| Cindy's watercolor of the trees on the edge of the new trail |
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| Paintsites artists take a break for lunch |
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| Paintsites artists at lunch |
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| Display of paintsites artwork |
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| Artists share their artwork |
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| Paintsite artists admiring artwork |
Crystal Springs Reservoir Dam Bridge
It took from Oct 2010 until Jan 2019 to complete the Crystal Springs Dam Bridge rebuild because the dam under the bridge was first improved, raising the dam and doubling the width of the spillway. Several of the artists had to check out the bridge and they liked it with its one roadway for vehicles and another for pedestrians and bicycles. It gives a great view of the Reservoir, the I-280 bridge, and the "Flintstone House", but no view of the dam underneath it. This wikipedia article about the dam contains some photos of the dam showing that is very large and impressive:
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Marilyn and Mindy are admiring the new pedestrian
walkway of the Crystal Springs Dam Bridge
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Pulgas Water Temple
Now that the bridge over the Crystal Springs Dam is complete, it is an easy and extremely scenic drive from our paintsite to the Pulgas Water Temple, 5 miles following the east shore of Lower and Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir. Some of the artists visited the temple on their way home, and three even took time to do a quick sketch. The temple was built in 1938 at the terminus of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct to commemorate the completion of the Aqueduct. It is modeled after temples which were erected near canals and waterways by the ancient Greeks.
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| Pulgas Water Temple |
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| Elaine and Tanvi sketching, Edward photographing |
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| Elaine's quick watercolor sketch of the Pulgas Water Temple |
