McCloud River

McCloud River
McLeod's Fork, McLoud River[1]
Middle McCloud Falls on the McCloud River
McCloud River is located in California
McCloud River
Location of the mouth of the McCloud River in California
Location
CountryUnited States
StateCalifornia
CityMcCloud
Physical characteristics
Source 
 • locationSoutheast of Mount Shasta, Siskiyou County, California
 • coordinates41°13′12″N 121°46′21″W / 41.22000°N 121.77250°W / 41.22000; -121.77250[2]
 • elevation4,677 ft (1,426 m)[3]
Mouth 
 • location
McCloud River Arm of Lake Shasta, Sacramento River, Shasta County, California
 • coordinates
40°46′13″N 122°18′13″W / 40.77028°N 122.30361°W / 40.77028; -122.30361[2]
 • elevation
1,066 ft (325 m)[2]
Length77 mi (124 km)[4]
Basin size674 sq mi (1,750 km2)[5]
Discharge 
 • locationnear the mouth[6]
 • average775 cu ft/s (21.9 m3/s)[6]
 • minimum109 cu ft/s (3.1 m3/s)
 • maximum51,300 cu ft/s (1,450 m3/s)
Indian rhubarb (Darmera peltata), on the edge of the McCloud River in May.

The McCloud River is a 77.1-mile (124.1 km) long[4] river that flows east of and parallel to the upper Sacramento River, in Siskiyou County and Shasta County in northern California in the United States. Protected under California's Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1972),[7] it drains a scenic mountainous area of the Cascade Range, including part of Mount Shasta. It is a tributary of the Pit River, which in turn flows into the Sacramento River. The three rivers join in Shasta Lake, formed by Shasta Dam north of Redding.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gudde was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c "McCloud River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  3. ^ Google Earth elevation for GNIS source coordinates. Retrieved on January 10, 2008.
  4. ^ a b U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map Archived March 29, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, accessed March 10, 2011
  5. ^ "Boundary Descriptions and Names of Regions, Subregions, Accounting Units and Cataloging Units". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved August 22, 2010.
  6. ^ a b USGS Gage #11368000 McCloud River above Shasta Lake, CA: Water-Data Report 2013. National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 2013. Accessed 2018-10-15.
  7. ^ Boxall, Bettina (March 26, 2019). "How California is defying Trump's environmental rollbacks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 26, 2019.