About the Truckee River:

The Truckee River begins at the outflow of Lake Tahoe, in Tahoe City, CA, and ends approximately 121 miles downstream in beautiful Pyramid Lake, NV.  Along its course, the river descends 2,240 feet in elevation, dropping from the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada Mountains into the arid shrublands of the Great Basin.  The river passes through the communities of Truckee, Reno, Sparks, Wadsworth, Nixon and others, and provides 85 percent of the municipal water supply for residents of Reno/Sparks and the Truckee Meadows region.  It also provides important habitat for many species of native wildlife, including the Cui-ui, an endangered species of fish found nowhere else in the world, and the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout.

The Truckee River and its watershed. Map by KMusser, Creative Commons license.