Qualla: Lake McClure

Lake McClure: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Hang gliders call it one of the most reliable soaring sites in California. Three hundred and twenty days a year, thermal columns rise off the sun-baked foothill terrain around Lake McClure, carrying pilots on silent loops above a reservoir that stretches across western Mariposa County like a crooked blue finger. The lake sits where the Merced River descends from the high Sierra toward the San Joaquin Valley, and its name honors a man whose most lasting contribution had nothing to do with dams. Wilbur Fiske McClure, California's head engineer, helped survey and lay out the route for the John Muir Trail, that 211-mile path threading the spine of the Sierra Nevada. In 1926, the year the original dam was completed, the reservoir was renamed in his honor.

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Image: Nzeemin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lake McClure: Two Dams, One Canyon

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob n' Renee, CC BY 2.0. The original Exchequer Dam was a concrete gravity arch structure completed between 1924 and 1926, impounding the Merced River to create a reservoir of 281,000 acre-feet. It was a respectable piece of engineering for its era, but postwar California was growing faster than anyone h...

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Image: Bob n' Renee | CC BY 2.0

Lake McClure: An Irrigation Empire

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob n' Renee, CC BY 2.0. Lake McClure exists because the San Joaquin Valley needs water and the Merced River has it. The Merced Irrigation District operates approximately 800 miles of canals fanning out from the dam across the valley floor, delivering water to farms that grow almonds, sweet potatoes, and...

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Image: Bob n' Renee | CC BY 2.0

Lake McClure: Mercury in the Water

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob n' Renee, CC BY 2.0. The fishing is good at Lake McClure. Bass, trout, and catfish draw anglers year-round, and the marina offers full services for boats of every size. But the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment has issued safe eating advisories for fish from both Lake McClur...

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Image: Bob n' Renee | CC BY 2.0

Lake McClure: Riding the Thermals

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bob n' Renee, CC BY 2.0. The hang gliding community discovered Lake McClure's exceptional soaring conditions decades ago and has never left. The surrounding terrain, a mix of exposed grassland and oak-studded foothills, absorbs the Central Valley's intense summer heat and radiates it back as powerful the...

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Image: Bob n' Renee | CC BY 2.0