California’s landscape is primarily flat with repetitive farmland for much of northbound Interstate 5 until the Pit River Bridge, when a steely overpass grants a fleeting but impressionable view of Shasta Lake.

Narrow, tentacular arms from four converging rivers host floating homes and power boats that carve white wakes over the surface. Kayakers and paddle boarders row along the 365-mile shoreline in search of open coves, while day-tripping spelunkers venture into limestone caverns that are only accessible after a boat ride over the water. At the southern end, the Bureau of Reclamation opens a door into Shasta Dam to let visitors freely tour the cerebrum that controls California’s largest reservoir.

The lake’s blue surface starkly contrasts with the shore’s martian red clay. Depending on rainfall and how to best serve the people living downstream through dam control, the amount of exposed red earth expands or contrasts. At the start of the decade, the water level sank so low that Shasta Lake seemed like it was suffering from an invasive shoreline. Summer in 2021 was so dry that kayakers paddled through a historic train tunnel that’s typically submerged underwater.

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The Pit River Bridge is seen over Lake Shasta in July 2022 during a megadrought.

It’s a different lake today. For the fourth year in a row, Shasta Lake is over 90% full. At this capacity, its shoreline is longer than that of San Francisco Bay and Lake Tahoe. The whiplash from dry to full is a trademark of Shasta Lake, said Matt Doyle, the general manager at Lake Shasta Caverns.

“We’re used to the ups and downs,” he told SFGATE in early June. “It’s off-putting when you see the giant bathtub rings and think it’s empty. But that couldn’t be further........

© SFGate