Morning Glory Spillway

A very active glory hole (pic by Eric)

The Monticello Dam, which holds back Lake Berryessa, features a morning glory spillway. This type of spillway is basically a giant cement funnel. Rather than spilling over the dam, high waters spill into the funnel. Morning glory spillways are also known as bell-mouth spillways.

The glory hole seen from afar. The glory hole seen from (err...) aclose.

The Monticello Dam's spillway is otherwise (and affectionately) known as The Glory Hole. The glory hole is located about 200 feet from the dam. Water spills over its lip when the lake reaches 1,602,000 acre-feet. The funnel's largest diameter is 72 feet and narrows to about 28 feet. It is designed to handle a maximum of 362,000 gallons of water per second, which occurs when the lake level rises to 15.5 feet above the level of the funnel. For more information about the glory hole (as well as photos of its construction in the 1950's), visit this site.

For obvious reasons, swimming near the glory hole is both prohibited and stupid. There are buoys strung across the lake to discourage boaters and swimmers from approaching the glory hole and the dam. Furthermore, the glory hole is well fenced off from the land.

Suicide at the glory hole is featured in the book "Intent to Defraud" by author Mark Travis.

Riding the glory hole (pic by Edgar)

The other end (pic by Jennifer)

During the drier months, when Lake Berryessa's water level is well below the rim of the glory hole, skateboarders and bikers sometimes use the spillway's horizontal exit as a half-pipe (or, more aptly, a full-pipe).

DanFisher offers the following advice on skating the glory hole: Unless you want to swim there, you will have to use a raft to go the last 15 feet or so. If there is a trickle of water collected at the bottom of the pipe, bring kitty litter and a push broom to keep it dry from where you're skateboarding. It's fun at night, but very very creepy!

A Davisite who is a hardcore sponsored BMX rider went to the bottom of the dam a year ago when the glory hole wasn't running, and went inside it from the bottom and had a rather intense session of riding with his buddys. One of them fell and broke an arm and has some rather nasty scars on his face now. There is videotape of the session. When asked about riding it, he said you would go up a wall for 40 feet, and then come back down like a huge vert. Intense! —StevenDaubert

In low water (pic by Charyn)

Go check out this engineering marvel! While the glory hole is not in Davis, it is cool enough and close enough that every Davisite should drive out to see it. However, if you want to see the glory hole in action (with high water), make sure to visit after a lot of rain. You can check the conditions at the Solano County Water Agency site.

Directions: Drive west on Covell or Russell. (After becoming County Road 93A, Covell eventually meets up with Russell.) In Winters, Russell becomes 128, which will take you to the top of Monticello Dam. There's a turn out right at the top of the dam where you can safely park. From Davis, it's about a half hour drive. Alternatively, you can bike up to the dam. For more information, visit the Bicycle Rides page.

Comments:

Note: You must be logged in to add comments

2006-03-19 13:30:13   Whiskeytown Lake near Redding, CA also has a similar spillway known as "The Glory Hole" —ErikAnderson

2006-03-23 13:49:12   Damn, looks scary. I'd hate to get sucked down there... —KareemKhan

2006-03-30 17:44:51   Erik: USBR was mighty fond of this spillway/outlet arrangment, you see them on Bureau dams all over the West. :) —RussBowlus

2006-06-26 14:02:55   The Glory Hole has always terrified me. I generally try to avoid the Glory Hole. —CameronMenezes

2007-04-30 09:58:35   Haven't a couple people hit the fence and swam out to the glory hole to jump in as a means of suicide? —StevenDaubert