Intake Two sits about 16 miles west of Bishop, tucked into the Middle Fork of Bishop Creek where the canyon begins to tighten and the aspens crowd close to the water. It’s not a natural lake at all, but a reservoir created by a dam completed in 1908, part of the long‑running Bishop Creek hydroelectric system operated by Southern California Edison. The dam is modest—about 30 feet high and 443 feet long—but it has quietly powered the Owens Valley region for more than a century.
The reservoir itself is small, holding roughly 78–115 acre‑feet of water depending on the season and inflow. It receives water not only from the Middle Fork but also from the South Fork via a conduit, and most of that water is diverted downstream to Powerplant No. 2. Even with all that engineering behind it, Intake Two doesn’t feel industrial. When you pull up, what you see is a peaceful pond ringed with pines and willows, with the Sierra peaks rising behind it.
For many visitors, Intake Two is synonymous with fishing. The lake is stocked annually with rainbow trout and also supports wild brown trout. Anglers line the banks with the kind of optimism only fishing can inspire, and even if you’re not there to cast a line, it’s hard not to enjoy the ritual of it all.