Willow Creek is a tributary, about long, of the

Deschutes River Deschutes River may refer to: *Deschutes River (Oregon) The Deschutes River in central Oregon is a major tributary of the Columbia River. The river provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many ...

in central

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in the United States. Arising near Foley Butte in the western

Ochoco Mountains The Ochoco Mountains are a mountain range in central Oregon in the United States, located at the western end of the Blue Mountains. They were formed when Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic rocks were slowly uplifted by volcanic eruptions to form t ...

in Crook County, it flows generally northwest into Jefferson County and through the

Crooked River National Grassland Crooked River National Grassland is a National Grassland located in Jefferson County in the north-central part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It has a land area of . It contains two National Wild and Scenic Rivers, the Deschutes River and the Cro ...

. The creek continues through the city of

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and becomes the dividing line between two plateaus, Agency Plains and Little Agency Plains. It then enters the Deschutes above

Pelton Dam Pelton Dam is a major dam on the Deschutes River in Jefferson County, Oregon, owned and operated as a hydroelectric facility by Portland General Electric, one element of its Pelton Round Butte Project on the Deschutes. The concrete arch dam at Pe ...

and its impoundment, Lake Simtustus, about from the river's confluence with the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

. The map includes mile markers along the Deschutes River. Named tributaries from source to mouth are Higgins, Coon, Newbill, and McMeen creeks followed by Dry Canyon. The creek and its tributaries support populations of

redband trout Redband trout are a group of three recognized subspecies of rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss''). They occur in three distinct regions in Pacific basin tributaries and endorheic basins in the western United States. The three subspecies are th ...

largescale sucker The largescale sucker (''Catostomus macrocheilus'') is a species of sucker, a type of freshwater fish, found in western North America. Description It has a rounded snout with a downturned mouth on its underside (as opposed to a mouth at end of t ...

bridgelip sucker The bridgelip sucker (''Catostomus columbianus'') is a fish in the family Catostomidae that occupies the Columbia River system. Like all sucker fish, they live only in fresh water. Bridgelip suckers have a tendency to live in deeper waters duri ...

, and

longnose dace The longnose dace (''Rhinichthys cataractae'') is a freshwater minnow native to North America. ''Rhinicthys'' means snout fish (reference to the long snout) and ''cataractae'' means of the cataract (first taken from Niagara Falls). Longnose dace ...

References

External links

Rivers of Crook County, Oregon Rivers of Jefferson County, Oregon Rivers of Oregon Madras, Oregon {{Oregon-river-stub

See also

References

External links