DELTA MEADOWS STATE PARK

PADDLE DISTANCE

PUT IN COORDINATES

HIGHLIGHTS

HAZARDS

APPROX 5 MILES

N38 15.028 W121 30.409

Very scenic, peaceful, the historical Chinese town of Locke is nearby, egret rookery, no wake zone for power boats and none going northeast because it's too shallow, lot's of nooks and crannies to explore, there are kayak and canoe tours through Brannan Island State Park 916-777-7701 in the spring and fall, otters, beavers and muskrats

Road down to boat ramp is steep and may need 4 x 4 to get out, impassable in wet season, check your tides and don't get caught at low tide in shallows, road in is a bit hard to find, no camping

I was looking for a nice, quick place to paddle somewhere near Sacramento before a club meeting. I’ve been to this area before in power boats but never in a kayak so I was somewhat familiar with the area. Locke is 28.5 miles south of downtown Sacramento. The easy way is to take I-5 south to Twin Cities road, go west about 5 miles to River Road (J11), turn left and go 1.5 miles to Locke. On the south side of town you will see the locks that controls the delta cross canal right after a propane station, - turn left on the paved road before the lock and go in about 100 yards where you’ll see a dirt road turns to the left and goes into a jungle like road. You will see a sign that says Delta Meadows State Park. Follow this for about ¼ mile and you will spot the road that goes down to the boat ramp. It is steep and rutted and I’m sure in the wet season it’s impassable. There’s parking at the top and also a porta-pottie.

In the launch area is a sunken old cruiser boat, a few old docks, and nearby were some folks in larger boats who were overnighting in the area – one from Hawaii!

I first went northeast into an unnamed channel where the further I went, the shallower it got but still passable at low tides I’m sure (I was there on a rising tide). At 1 mile the channel turns to the northeast where things got narrower, thicker, shallower and even prettier and in a tree (marked with the camera logo) was an egret rookery.

I wasn’t able to go any further at the time so I headed back and went past the launch and headed out to Snodgrass Slough and the Mokelumne River where there were a number of power boaters.

Overall, a very pleasant paddle and next time I’d like to take a little more time to explore some of the “cavities” between the tulles and take a few more photographs. The winds came up but with all the tree cover it didn’t affect my paddle much.