FiftyThree: Rain Free

Continuing the ”Creeks and Rivers of Silicon Valley” year long quest.

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Uvas Reservoir (Spanish for “grapes”), which is just above Morgan Hill (painted in ThirtySix: El Toro) and San Martin, just south of San Jose. This reservoir is on Uvas Creek, and almost empty. I drive by the reservoir frequently throughout the year as it is on one of my favorite Harley ride routes, so see it in all stages of capacity. McKean/Uvas Road is a mecca for cyclists, both motor and pedal powered.

Having spent my adolescent years in East Texas, I am always enchanted by the beautiful skies and clouds when I go back to visit. Huge thunderheads, magnificent in their awesome power would bring refreshing, but short bursts of moisture during the summer months. Huge puffy cumulus clouds would fill the sky rolling slowly past in no hurry to get anywhere. In the hot summer sun, an hour or two would show no evidence of the previous downpour.

Here in the San Francisco Bay area, we rarely see such wonder in the skies. Being close to the Pacific, the skies are usually a non-event. The exception to this is just after a storm. Such a day was today, as the first substantial rain since April moved through the area. The skies were so beautiful, I decided to make it a center of interest in the painting.

We need many such storms before we are rid of this drought. The streams are still not running as it will take quite a bit of rain to soak the parched ground so runoff can start.

To give you a little perspective, Uvas Dam is 105 feet high and I am almost a mile away in the below pictures. The water level would normally be at the tree line in the far shore. Click on a thumbnail to open up a larger picture and slide show***