The North Fork Payette River () is a river in the

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in western

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. It flows about southwards from the Salmon River Mountains to near

Banks A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, where it empties into the

Payette River The Payette River () is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 3, 2011 river in southwestern Idaho and is a major tributary of the Snake River. Its headwaters originate ...

, a tributary of the

Snake River The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest region in the United States. At long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, in turn, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake ...

. It drains a watershed of , consisting of mountains and forests, and valleys filled with large lakes and wetlands.

Course

It rises at the confluence of Trail Creek and Cloochman Creek, in a meadow in the

Payette National Forest The Payette National Forest is a U.S. National Forest located in central western Idaho, in parts of Valley, Idaho, Adams, and Washington counties. The land area consists of approximately 2.3 million acres (9,300 km2) of federally managed ...

in Valley County. The river flows south into Upper Payette Lake, then further south through a narrow valley into Payette Lake, with a surface

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The river exits from the southwestern corner of the lake at McCall and flows southwards through Long Valley into

Lake Cascade Lake Cascade (formerly Cascade Reservoir), is a reservoir in the western United States, on the North Fork of the Payette River in Valley County, Idaho. Located in the Boise National Forest, it has a surface area of , and is the fourth largest la ...

, a large reservoir formed by Cascade Dam. The Lake Fork and Gold Fork rivers join from the north and east sides of the lake. About below the Cascade Dam and the town of

Cascade Cascade, Cascades or Cascading may refer to: Science and technology Science *Cascade waterfalls, or series of waterfalls * Cascade, the CRISPR-associated complex for antiviral defense (a protein complex) * Cascade (grape), a type of fruit * Bioc ...

, the North Fork reaches the end of Long Valley and enters a narrow canyon along the western side of the North Fork Range in the

Boise National Forest Boise National Forest is a National Forest covering of the U.S. state of Idaho. Created on July 1, 1908, from part of Sawtooth National Forest, it is managed by the U.S. Forest Service as five units: the Cascade, Emmett, Idaho City, Low ...

. Paralleled by State Highway 55, it crosses into Boise County, where the canyon's depth exceeds . The North Fork joins with the Payette River at Banks (). From there, the Payette River flows further west to its confluence with the Snake River at Payette, just northeast of

Ontario, Oregon Ontario is the largest city in Malheur County, Oregon, United States. It lies along the Snake River at the Idaho border. The population was 11,366 at the 2010 census. The city is the largest community in the region of far eastern Oregon, also k ...

References

External links

{{authority control Rivers of Idaho Rivers of Valley County, Idaho Rivers of Boise County, Idaho Payette National Forest

Course

See also

References

External links