Trinity River (California)
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The Trinity River is the longest tributary of the Klamath River, approximately 130 mi (209 km) long, in northwestern California in the United States. It drains an area of the Coast Ranges, including the southern Klamath Mountains, northwest of the Sacramento Valley. Considered especially scenic, along most of its course it flows swiftly through tight canyons and mountain meadows.
Description
It rises in northeastern Trinity County, in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest along the east side of the Scott Mountains, a subrange of the Klamath Mountains. It flows SSW along the west side of the Trinity Mountains into Clair Engle Lake (20 mi/32 km long) formed on the river by the Trinity Dam, then immediately into the smaller Lewiston Lake, formed by the Lewiston Dam at Lewiston. From the reservoir it flows generally WNW past Weaverville and along the southern side of the Trinity Alps. It receives the New River from the north at Burnt Ranch and the South Fork Trinity River from the south along the Humboldt-Trinity county line. From the confluence with the South Fork it flows generally NNW through the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation and joins the Klamath from the south in northern Humboldt County at Weitchpec, approximately 20 mi (32 km) from the Pacific coast. Both Clair Engle Lake and Lake Lewiston are within Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area.
The river has been the seen of placer and hydrodaulic gold mining since the days of the California gold rush. The river's swift current make it a popular destination for whitewater rafting and kayaking. The river is also known for its runs of salmon and steelhead maintained in part by hatcheries. In 1981 the United States Congress designated the entire river downstream from the Lewiston Dam to its mouth on the Klamath, as well as portions of the river's tributaries, as the Trinity Wild and Scenic River
External links
- NPS: Trinity Wild and Scenic River (http://www.nps.gov/rivers/wsr-trinity.html)
- Friends of the Trinity River (http://www.fotr.org/)