We live close to "The Delta" but have never been. What is The Delta?
"The California Delta is located roughly between Sacramento on the north and Stockton on the south and encompasses about 1,000 miles of waterways. The main contributing rivers are the Sacramento River, coming in from the north, and the San Joaquin River, coming in from the south. Other rivers feeding into the two major rivers include the American River, the Mokelumne River, the Cosumnes River and the Calaveras River. Before these rivers empty into the Pacific Ocean through the San Francisco Bay, they pass through some of the best boating waterways in this country, if not the world. The California Delta is a labyrinth of sloughs with names like Potato Slough, Whites Slough, Snodgrass Slough, Lost Slough, Georgiana Slough, Steamboat Slough, and many, many more. As one explores these watery avenues, vistas of vine-covered trees, blackberry brambles, or tule grasses appear at almost every turn. It truly is a boater’s paradise."
Some of the waterways are deep channel rivers allowing large shipping barges to travel all the way to Sacramento from the Ocean. The Delta has a lot of history with farming and Chinese emigrants who settled the area. The Delta provides water to most of the farms that run between Sacramento and Los Angeles. There are islands surrounded by rivers and big lakes and many areas for boating and fishing. The Delta is also home to many many small and historic communities, some with a population of only 250!
Click HERE to view a history of The Delta.
Rio Vista, which is the largest town in The Delta with a population of around 4500, had a tall ship visiting and we decided to go see it. Rio Vista was also where, in the 80's a whale swam up the rivers and ended up in Rio Vista for about a month and it was quite an attraction!
Anyhow, we drove down (about an hour and 15 mins) to Rio Vista to see the "Hawaiian Chieftan" sailing ship. It's a ship similar to those used by the Spanish Explorers in the 18th Century. It was open to walk around, and the crew was telling the history about the ship and stories about living on the ship.
They sail from Washington State down to San Diego giving historical sailing camps and trips to 4th and 5th graders normally during the year, and were just making a quick stop in Rio Vista that day.
It was a little cold and overcast, but we weren't going to let that dampen our trip! We had Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam and Louie (their dog) come with us too.
Here are some photos of the ship sailing (not taken by me obviously).
On the way home, we didn't take the freeway, but instead took the scenic way though all the small towns driving along the levee roads to get back to Sacramento. We took two ferry rides along two different ferries that operate 24/7 for free providing transportation to and from a very large "island" surrounded by the rivers. The entire island is farms and vacation marinas. It was very pretty and fun to ride the car ferrys! The kids thought it was so cool to drive on the ferry and ride it in our car. Being a huge waterway, there are so many bridges! Most are working drawbridges and we loved looking at all the different ones.
We had a great day learning about The Delta and those that settled the area.
