Shasta River

Water type: River
Continent: North America
Climate: Temperate

Artificial lakes

The Shasta River is a tributary of the Klamath River, approximately 58 miles (93 km) long, in northern California in the United States. It drains the Shasta Valley on the west and north sides of Mount Shasta in the Cascade Range.

The Shasta River is spawning site for a run of endangered Chinook salmon. Estimates suggest that 80,000 adults fish once returned to the river every year, the largest returning population of any tributary in the Klamath watershed besides the Trinity River.

Today, less than 10% of this population still returns, and recent droughts have severely hampered survival rates of juvenile fish.

The river also supports coho salmon and steelhead.