06-Jul-2022 -- From Alturas (the only town of any significance in the northeast corner of California), I drove northwards on a series of long gravel roads towards the Oregon state line. My goal was to revisit this remote Degree Confluence Point that I had last visited 11 years earlier, during a tour of the US. I eventually crossed into Oregon and continued westward on Willow Valley Road - a gravel road that fortunately passes just 0.1 miles south of the point.

I noticed two major changes since my last visit, in May 2011. First, the lake - to the northeast of the point - was now dry (there were even cattle grazing on parts of the lake bed). This is likely due to a combination of visiting later in the year (July instead of May) and current drought conditions in the western US. Second, in May 2011 the “Ruby Pipeline” (a natural gas pipeline connecting Wyoming and Oregon) was being laid, just south of the gravel road (and avoiding the California state line, just 0.5 miles away). Now, the only sign of the pipeline from ground level is a series of yellow warning posts. (However, the route of the pipeline can be seen from the air, in the East 120m ‘drone’s-eye’ view.)

Here is a remote-controlled aerial video of this confluence point.