Sierra Valley is a large mountain valley located west of the crest of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

's Sierra Nevada mountain range in Plumas and

Sierra Sierra (Spanish for "mountain range" and "saw", from Latin '' serra'') may refer to the following: Places Mountains and mountain ranges * Sierra de Juárez, a mountain range in Baja California, Mexico * Sierra de las Nieves, a mountain range i ...

Counties, north of

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one ...

Geography

An intermontaine valley at approximately elevation, Sierra Valley is surrounded by mountains ranging in elevation from 6,000 to . The huge valley covering about is a down-faulted basin, formerly a lake of similar geologic origin to

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake ...

to the south, now filled with sediment up to two thousand feet thick. The former Lake has the suggested name of Lake Beckwourth and existed until approximately 10,000 years ago. Average annual rainfall is less than twenty inches, most falling as snow. The valley floor has a grassland and sagebrush ecosystem and is the site of extensive freshwater marshes filled with cattails, bulrushes and alkaline flats that drain into the Middle Fork Feather River. Many species of wildlife make their permanent home in the valley, and a great number of migratory bird species stop over in the fall and nest in the valley in the spring. The valley also has thermal activity, with Marble Hot Springs located in the north central valley floor.

Economy

Sierra Valley is an agricultural and livestock region. Tourism also contributes to the local economy.

Access

Entrance from the west is through Yuba Pass on

State Route 49 The following highways are numbered 49: Australia * Queensland State Route 49 **Wide Bay Highway **Bunya Highway **Moonie Highway **Balonne Highway * Central Coast Highway Canada * Alberta Highway 49 * British Columbia Highway 49 * Manitoba High ...

. Entrance from the east is through Beckwourth Pass, the lowest mountain pass on the crest of the Sierra Nevada, on State Route 70.

State Route 89 The following highways are numbered 89: Canada * Manitoba Highway 89 * Highway 89 (Ontario) Israel * Highway 89 (Israel) United States * Interstate 89 ** Interstate 87 (North Carolina–Virginia) (former proposal) * U.S. Route 89 * Alabama Stat ...

skirts the southern end of the valley. State Route 49, the

Gold Rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

trail, terminates at State Route 70 in Vinton, and the latter highway then terminates at Hallelujah Junction on U.S. Route 395 after passing through Chilcoot.

Principal towns

* Sierraville * Beckwourth * Calpine * Sattley * Loyalton * Vinton * Chilcoot

Sources

A Biological Baseline Study of Sierra Valley Marsh, California 1976. Dept. of Biology, SFSU. NSF SOS grant SMI-76-08071. This was a student originated study funded by the National Science Foundation to assess biological resources of the high-altitude freshwater marsh in Sierra Valley. https://archive.org/details/SierraValleyStudy/page/n23

References

External links

*
Plumas County Visitors BureauPlumas National forestTahoe National forest
{{Coord, 39, 46, 15, N, 120, 19, 40, W, display=title Valleys of California Wetlands of California Landforms of Plumas County, California Landforms of Sierra County, California Valleys of Plumas County, California Valleys of Sierra County, California