North Fork American River

The North Fork American River is the longest branch of the American River in Northern California. It is 88 miles long from its source at the crest of the Sierra Nevada, near Lake Tahoe, to its mouth at Folsom Lake northeast of Sacramento. Prior to the construction of Folsom Dam the river was about 9 miles longer making for a total length of 97 miles .

It rises at Mountain Meadow Lake near the 9,008 ft peak of Granite Chief in the Tahoe National Forest. Flowing initially northwest, the river soon swings west into a gorge, paralleling the Forest Hill Divide on the south. Big Granite Creek then joins the North Fork of the American River coming in from the right. The canyon shallows as the river turns southwest, carving through the Sierra foothills, then turning abruptly south near Colfax. About 4 miles downstream, it receives Shirttail Creek from the left then is impounded in Lake Clementine which is formed by the North Fork Dam, built in 1939 to contain hydraulic mining debris.

Wikipedia