The Wilson River, about long, flows from the

Northern Oregon Coast Range The Northern Oregon Coast Range is the northern section of the Oregon Coast Range, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region, located in the northwest portion of the state of Oregon, United States. This section of the mountain range, part ...

Tillamook Bay Tillamook Bay is a small inlet of the Pacific Ocean, approximately 6 mi (10 km) long and 2 mi (3 km) wide, on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located just north of Cape Meares in western Tillamook Co ...

in the

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

. Formed by the confluence of its Devil's Lake Fork and its South Fork, it runs generally west through the Tillamook State Forest to its mouth near the city of Tillamook. The maps include

river mile A river mile is a measure of distance in miles along a river from its mouth. River mile numbers begin at zero and increase further upstream. The corresponding metric unit using kilometers is the river kilometer. They are analogous to vehicle roadw ...

(RM) markers from the river's mouth to its source near Elk Creek Campground. It is one of five rivers—the Tillamook, the Trask, the Wilson, the Kilchis, and the

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

—that flow into the bay.

Course

The river rises in the Tillamook State Forest in the mountains of northeastern Tillamook County. The river's North Fork rises in northern Tillamook County and flows south. Its South Fork rises in eastern Tillamook County and western Washington County and flows west to merge with Devils Lake Fork. Further downstream, the Wilson River receives the North Fork near Lees Camp. It then flows southwest to Tillamook, entering the southeast end of Tillamook Bay about northwest of the city. The mouth of the river is about north of the mouth of the Trask River and slightly south of the mouth of the Kilchis River. Oregon Route 6, also known as the Wilson River Highway, runs parallel to the river and links the

Tualatin Valley The Tualatin Valley is a farming and suburban region southwest of Portland, Oregon in the United States. The valley is formed by the meandering Tualatin River, a tributary of the Willamette River at the northwest corner of the Willamette Valley, ...

and the

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

metropolitan area with the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

Discharge

The

United States Geological Survey The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

(USGS) monitors the flow of the Wilson River at a

stream gauge A stream gauge, streamgage or stream gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water level surface elevation (" stage") and/or v ...

from the mouth of the river. The average flow at this gauge is . This is from a drainage area of , about 83 percent of the total Wilson River watershed. The maximum flow recorded there was on November 6, 2006, and the minimum flow was on September 5, 1973, although it might have been less for a short while after a landslide on January 31, 1965.

Floods

The Wilson River was part of the Willamette Valley flood of 1996 when it rose to 19.51 inches on February 8, damaging roads and farms and houses in Tillamook. Since then it has risen to its highest recorded reading of 22.84 inches on November 7, 2006.

Fishing

According to ''Fishing Oregon: An Angler's Guide to Oregon'', the Wilson River is "one of the state's best steelhead and Chinook salmon fisheries". Spring Chinook average about , fall Chinook from , 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 an ...

from . County-owned boat launches on the lower reaches and public access via Route 6 through the Tillamook State Forest make the river easily accessible to anglers. State regulations govern the seasons and methods of fishing.

References

External links