Two Pulitzer winners. One dog. A road trip during California’s drought. | #drylandsCA

Mary Gregerson, 3, cries in the arms of her mother, Denise, as they wait to have their golf cart judged in a decorating contest during July 4 festivities at Bass Lake.

Fourth of July revelers find seats among a row of now-dry boat docks near the shore of Bass Lake.

Mark Husted dances with fire to entertain July 4 crowds at Bass Lake. Festival organizers presented a laser light show in lieu of fireworks because of the fire danger in the tinder dry, drought-ridden area. They still, however, allowed fire dancers to perform.

Fire dancers perform at Bass Lake.

Houseboats rest on blocks at the McClure Point launching facility parking lot. Hundreds of boats were removed from the receding water because of a lack of space on Lake McClure, northeast of Merced. A spokesman said it cost as much as $1,000 to move a boat from the water.

Reporter Diana Marcum’s dog Murphy treads through a trickle of water in Willow Cove. Not long ago, this part of Bass Lake was full, but years of drought have reduced it to a muddy stream.   (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Reporter Diana Marcum with Mac, right, and Murphy, when he was a puppy. Murphy, now 4, is accompanying two journalists on a road trip through drought-stricken California.

Water flows down the Kings River for the first time in six months, bringing along young fish and tons of debris. The planned release from Pine Flat Dam, used to irrigate farms as far south as Riverdale, will fill the canal for only three weeks.

Rick Jackson treads through the debris-laden flow of the Kings River as water runs along its parched floor outside his home for the first time in six months.

Russell Mineau carries his cousin Logan Huckabay, 5, into the Kings River as water flows there for the first time in months.

A fish jumps in the debris-strewn Kings River.

The growing banks of Lake McClure, east of Modesto.

Fishermen are dwarfed by the rising banks of Lake McClure. Water levels at the lake, which is 40 miles east of Modesto and fed by the Merced River, are at less than 10% of capacity.