The American River is a 30-mile-long (50 km) river in California that runs from the Sierra Nevada mountain range to its confluence with the Sacramento River in downtown Sacramento. Via the Sacramento River, it is part of the San Francisco Bay watershed. This river is fed by the melting snowpack of the Sierra Nevada and its many headwaters and tributaries, including the North Fork American River, the Middle Fork American River, and the South Fork American River.
The American River at Folsom
View of the American River from below the Guy West Bridge on the Sacramento State campus
American River view from the campus of California State University, Sacramento
North Fork at Foresthill Bridge
The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges that forms the western "backbone" of the Americas.
The Sierra's Mills Creek cirque (center) is on the west side of the Sierra Crest, south of Mono Lake (top, blue).
Kearsarge Lakes Basin is named after the USS Kearsarge
The Sierra hosts many waterways, such as the Tuolumne River.
Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the range and the contiguous United States
