The Shasta River is a tributary of the
Klamath River
The Klamath River (Karuk: ''Ishkêesh'', Klamath: ''Koke'', Yurok: ''Hehlkeek 'We-Roy'') flows through Oregon and northern California in the United States, emptying into the Pacific Ocean. By average discharge, the Klamath is the second larges ...
, approximately long,
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
accessed 9 March 2011 in northern
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in the United States. It drains the Shasta Valley on the west and north sides of
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta ( Shasta: ''Waka-nunee-Tuki-wuki''; Karuk: ''Úytaahkoo'') is a potentially active volcano at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California. At an elevation of , it is the second-highest peak in the Cascades ...
in the
Cascade Range
The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...
.
The river rises in southern
Siskiyou County
Siskiyou County (, ) is a county in the northernmost part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076. Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta. It falls within the Cascadia bioregion ...
on the edge of the
Shasta-Trinity National Forest, approximately southwest of
Weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
. It flows generally northwest through the Shasta Valley, past Weed, through
Lake Shastina, and past
Montague. It joins the Klamath from the south approximately north-northeast of
Yreka
Yreka ( ) is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,807, reflecting a meager increase fro ...
.
The Shasta Valley is dominated by nearby Mount Shasta and underlain with
volcanic
A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface.
On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...
basalt
Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...
from eruptions of the mountain in recent
geologic
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Eart ...
time.
Pluto's Cave is an example of voids remaining after highly fluid
lava
Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a fracture in the crust, on land or un ...
drained from underground conduits which were fed by volcanic vents to the east. The Shasta Valley is covered with small hillocks extending from the base of Mt. Shasta north to just beyond the city of Montague, that are the debris from the liquefication of the ancestral Mount Shasta sometime within the past 400,000 years.
Course
Rising on the east slope of
Mount Eddy
Mount Eddy is the highest peak of the Trinity Mountains, a mountain range of the Klamath Mountains System, located in Siskiyou County, and Trinity County in northern California.
The mountain is in the Mount Eddy RNA, a Research Natural Area on t ...
several miles west of Mount Shasta and about northwest of
Shasta Lake
Shasta Lake, also popularly known as Lake Shasta, is a reservoir in Shasta County, California, United States. It began to store water in 1944 due to the impounding of the Sacramento River by Shasta Dam, the ninth tallest dam in the United State ...
, the Shasta River immediately proceeds to flow through a wide agricultural valley. Running north, parallel to
Interstate 5
Interstate 5 (I-5) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the West Coast of the United States, running largely parallel to the Pacific coast of the contiguous U.S. from Mexico to Canada. It travels through the states of Califor ...
, for the next few miles, the Shasta receives its first important tributary, Eddy Creek, from the left, from the mouth. It then crosses under the interstate, winds past a ridge, and passes the town of
Weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
. It then turns northeast into
Lake Shastina, an artificial lake formed by a dam at its north end, and turns northwest.
Bypassing
Big Springs from the mouth, the river picks up more agricultural runoff as it meanders north between irrigated fields. The river then passes between
Yreka
Yreka ( ) is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,807, reflecting a meager increase fro ...
and
Montague, from the mouth, crossed by
California State Route 3
State Route 3 (SR 3) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California that serves Trinity and Siskiyou counties. It runs from SR 36 north along the shore of Trinity Lake, Fort Jones and Etna. The route then approaches Yreka, intersecting w ...
and Interstate 5 for the final time. It then enters a canyon in the
Klamath Mountains
The Klamath Mountains are a rugged and lightly populated mountain range in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon in the western United States. As a mountain system within both the greater Pacific Coast Ranges and the California Coast R ...
, from the mouth, and begins to parallel
California State Route 263
State Route 263 (SR 263) is a state highway in the U.S. state of California in Siskiyou County, running parallel to Interstate 5 to the west. Route 263 connects State Route 3 near the north city limits of Yreka to State Route 96 eight miles (13 ...
. Its mouth is on the left bank of the Klamath River, at the junction of State Route 263 and
State Route 96.
Watershed
The roughly watershed of the Shasta River consists of a semi-arid farming valley entirely in
Siskiyou County
Siskiyou County (, ) is a county in the northernmost part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 44,076. Its county seat is Yreka and its highest point is Mount Shasta. It falls within the Cascadia bioregion ...
. It is adjacent to the
Scott River
The Scott River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed March 9, 2011 river in Siskiyou County, California, United States. It is a tributary of the Klamath River, one of the ...
on the west,
Butte Creek on the east, and the main Klamath River on the north. The watershed is located east of the Klamath Mountains and northwest of Mount Shasta. Some towns in the watershed include
Weed
A weed is a plant considered undesirable in a particular situation, "a plant in the wrong place", or a plant growing where it is not wanted.Harlan, J. R., & deWet, J. M. (1965). Some thoughts about weeds. ''Economic botany'', ''19''(1), 16-24. ...
,
Edgewood Edgewood may refer to:
Places Canada
*Edgewood, British Columbia
South Africa
*Edgewood, a University of KwaZulu-Natal campus in Pinetown, South Africa
United States Cities and towns
*Edgewood, California
*Edgewood, Florida
*Edgewood, Illinois, a ...
,
Gazelle
A gazelle is one of many antelope species in the genus ''Gazella'' . This article also deals with the seven species included in two further genera, ''Eudorcas'' and ''Nanger'', which were formerly considered subgenera of ''Gazella''. A third f ...
,
Big Springs,
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
,
Montague, and
Yreka
Yreka ( ) is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, near the Shasta River; the city has an area of about , most of it land. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 7,807, reflecting a meager increase fro ...
. Major bodies of water include Lake Shastina (Dwinnell Reservoir) and Trout Lake.
Receiving just of rain yearly on average, the -wide Shasta River Valley receives most of its surface water flow from groundwater, and now, agricultural return flows. It also receives some water from snow runoff at Mount Shasta - which flows out of lava tubes as springs and feeds east-side Shasta River tributaries such as Big Springs Creek.
Natural History
The Shasta River is spawning site for a run of endangered
Chinook salmon
The Chinook salmon (''Oncorhynchus tshawytscha'') is the largest and most valuable species of Pacific salmon in North America, as well as the largest in the genus ''Oncorhynchus''. Its common name is derived from the Chinookan peoples. Other ve ...
. Estimates suggest that 80,000 adults fish once returned to the river every year, the largest returning population of any tributary in the Klamath watershed besides the
Trinity River
Today, less than 10% of this population still returns, and recent droughts have severely hampered survival rates of juvenile fish.
The river also supports
coho salmon
The coho salmon (''Oncorhynchus kisutch;'' Karuk: achvuun) is a species of anadromous fish in the salmon family and one of the five Pacific salmon species. Coho salmon are also known as silver salmon or "silvers". The scientific species name i ...
and
steelhead
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and N ...
.
References
External links
Shasta River Geology
{{Authority control
Mount Shasta
Tributaries of the Klamath River
Rivers of Siskiyou County, California
Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Rivers of Northern California