page_title: Stony Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
hierarchical_section_title: Stony Creek (Sacramento River tributary)
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial of Stony Gorge Dam in Glenn County, California
context_page_description: Stony Creek is a 73.5-mile-long seasonal river in Northern California. It is a tributary of the Sacramento River, draining a watershed of more than 700 square miles on the west side of the Sacramento Valley in Glenn, Colusa, Lake and Tehama Counties.
  Originating on the eastern slope of the Coast Ranges, Stony Creek flows north through an extensive series of foothill valleys before turning east across the Sacramento Valley to its confluence with the Sacramento River, about 5 miles west-southwest of Chico. Stony Creek is the second largest tributary to the west side of the Sacramento River; only Cottonwood Creek is larger. Stony Creek is an important source of water for agriculture in the Orland area. The river has native rainbow trout and historically had significant ocean-going runs of steelhead.
  Stony Creek was named for the large amount of rocks and sediments it once washed down from the mountains during floods. Today, most of the sediment is trapped behind Black Butte Dam, a flood-control structure built in 1963. It is labeled on some maps as "Stoney Creek" or "Stone Creek" and was historically known as the Capay River.
context_section_description: Stony Creek is a 73.5-mile (118.3 km)-long seasonal river in Northern California. It is a tributary of the Sacramento River, draining a watershed of more than 700 square miles (1,800 km²) on the west side of the Sacramento Valley in Glenn, Colusa, Lake and Tehama Counties. 
  Originating on the eastern slope of the Coast Ranges, Stony Creek flows north through an extensive series of foothill valleys before turning east across the Sacramento Valley to its confluence with the Sacramento River, about 5 miles (8.0 km) west-southwest of Chico. Stony Creek is the second largest tributary to the west side of the Sacramento River; only Cottonwood Creek is larger. Stony Creek is an important source of water for agriculture in the Orland area. The river has native rainbow trout and historically had significant ocean-going runs of steelhead.
  Stony Creek was named for the large amount of rocks and sediments it once washed down from the mountains during floods. Today, most of the sediment is trapped behind Black Butte Dam, a flood-control structure built in 1963. It is labeled on some maps as "Stoney Creek" or "Stone Creek" and was historically known as the Capay River.
caption: Stony Gorge Dam on Stony Creek, near Elk Creek
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