The East Branch North Fork Feather River is a left tributary of the

North Fork Feather River The North Fork Feather River is a watercourse of the northern Sierra Nevada in the U.S. state of California. It flows generally southwards from its headwaters near Lassen Peak to Lake Oroville, a reservoir formed by Oroville Dam in the foothills ...

in the northern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

Plumas County, California Plumas County () is a county in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,790. The county seat is Quincy, and the only incorporated city is Portola. The largest community in the county is ...

. Primarily within the

Plumas National Forest Plumas National Forest is a 1,146,000-acre (4,638 km2) United States National Forest located at the northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada, in northern California. The Forest was named after its primary watershed, the Rio de las Plumas, or F ...

, its course extends from Paxton (north of Quincy) to Belden.

Course

The East Branch is formed by the confluence of Indian Creek and Spanish Creek just upstream of Paxton. Indian Creek and Spanish Creek drain an extensive watershed along about of the

Sierra Crest The Sierra Crest is a roughly generally north-to-south ridgeline that demarcates the broad west and narrow east slopes of the Sierra Nevada and that extends as far east as the Sierra's topographic front (e.g., Diamond Mountains and Sierran esc ...

in eastern Plumas County, along its border with

Lassen County Lassen County () is a county in the northeastern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,730. The county seat and only incorporated city is Susanville. Lassen County comprises the Susanville, Calif ...

. Indian Creek is long, but is long measured to the head of its tributary Last Chance Creek. Spanish Creek, the smaller of the two, is about long. From the confluence, the East Branch winds west for through a steep and narrow canyon until its confluence with the North Fork next to Caribou Rd (40°00'49.9"N 121°13'32.4"W), about northeast of Oroville. The river canyon is an important transportation corridor, forming route for SR 70, which parallels the north bank of the river, and for the

Union Pacific Railroad The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

Feather River Route The Feather River Route is a rail line that was built and operated by the Western Pacific Railroad. It was constructed between 1906 and 1909, and connects the cities of Oakland, California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. The line was built to compete ...

on the south bank. The Feather River Route was originally constructed between 1906 and 1909 while the highway was built in the 1920s. There are several large alluvial valleys in the East Branch watershed. Indian Creek flows through Indian Valley, which includes the communities of Greenville and Taylorsville. Spanish Creek flows through the American Valley, which includes Quincy, the county seat of Plumas County. Settlers drained the valley's wet meadows for cattle and hay production, and its stream channels are deeply incised (

beavers Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers a ...

were nearly eliminated). (p. 19)

References

{{Reflist

External links

Plumas National Forest - Map
Tributaries of the Feather River Rivers of Plumas County, California Rivers of the Sierra Nevada (United States) Feather Headwaters Plumas National Forest Rivers of Northern California Rivers of the Sierra Nevada in California

Course

See also

References

External links