page_title: Truckee River
section_title: Course and watershed
hierarchical_section_title: Truckee River / Course and watershed
caption_attribution_description: English: The Truckee River in Truckee, California, with Donner Creek flowing in from the right
context_page_description: The Truckee River is a river in the U.S. states of California and Nevada. The river flows northeasterly and is 121 miles long. The Truckee is the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe and drains part of the high Sierra Nevada, emptying into Pyramid Lake in the Great Basin. Its waters are an important source of irrigation along its valley and adjacent valleys.
context_section_description: The Truckee River's source is the outlet of Lake Tahoe, at the dam on the northwest side of the lake near Tahoe City, California. It flows generally northeast through the mountains to Truckee, California, then turns sharply to the east and flows into Nevada, through Reno and Sparks and along the northern end of the Carson Range. At Fernley it turns north, flowing along the east side of the Pah Rah Range. It empties into the southern end of Pyramid Lake, a remnant of prehistoric Lake Lahontan, in northern Washoe County in the Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation.
  The Truckee River's endorheic drainage basin is about 3,060 square miles (7,900 km²), of which about 2,300 square miles (6,000 km²) are in Nevada. The Middle Watershed is regarded as the 15 miles (24 km) of river and its tributaries from Tahoe City in Placer County, through the Town of Truckee in Nevada County, to the state line between Sierra and Washoe counties. The major tributaries to the Truckee River in California from the Lake Tahoe outlet and heading downstream include: Bear Creek, Squaw Creek, Cabin Creek, Pole Creek, Donner Creek, Trout Creek, Martis Creek, Prosser Creek, the Little Truckee River, Gray Creek, and Bronco Creek. Major lakes and reservoirs in the California part of the watershed include Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake, Independence Lake (California), Webber Lake, Boca Reservoir, Stampede Reservoir, Prosser Creek Reservoir, and Martis Creek Reservoir. In the Lower Watershed, Steamboat Creek, which drains Washoe Lake, is the major tributary to the Truckee River.
caption: The Truckee River in Truckee, California, with Donner Creek flowing in from the right
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "7114", "Image ImageLength": "1619", "Image Make": "Google", "Image Model": "Pixel 3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image Software": "Picasa", "Image DateTime": "2020:06:30 15:20:01", "Image YCbCrSubSampling": "[2, 2]", "Image ExifOffset": "176", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[39, 19, 33/100]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[120, 12, 67/100]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "84333/50", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[22, 19, 27]", "GPS GPSDate": "2020:06:30", "Image GPSInfo": "456", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "786", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4259", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2020:06:30 15:20:01", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2020:06:30 15:20:01", "EXIF OffsetTime": "-07:00", "EXIF OffsetTimeOriginal": "-07:00", "EXIF OffsetTimeDigitized": "-07:00", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF SubSecTime": "063", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "063", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "063", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3493", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1619", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "662", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "6d2e8db364b9cdb80000000000000000"}