11 Facts About Merced River

Merced River, in the central part of the U S state of California, is a 145-mile -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley.

Merced River first formed as the Sierra Nevada rose about 10 million years ago, and sediment eroded from its canyon helped form the flat floor of the San Joaquin Valley.

Merced River'storically, there was an extensive riparian zone which provided habitat for millions of migrating birds, and the river had one of the southernmost runs of chinook salmon in North America.

The course of the Merced River then turns to the north west and flows through a steep walled canyon for 2.

Much of the Merced River basin is at high elevation, where an alpine climate prevails.

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Merced River is the third largest tributary of the San Joaquin River.

Birds that occur commonly in the middle and upper sections of the Merced River include mourning dove, Cassin's finch, California quail, dark-eyed junco, woodpecker, dipper, great blue heron, scrub jay, red-winged blackbird, red-tailed hawk, turkey vulture, cliff swallow, canyon wren, merganser, and bald eagles.

Over millions of years, the Merced River cut a deep canyon through the softer sedimentary rock, eventually hitting the hard granite beneath.

The present-day form of the upper Merced River watershed was formed by glaciers, and the lower watershed was indirectly but significantly affected.

Sediments of glacial origin continued to travel down the Merced River following then, helping to form the flat floor of the Central Valley.

Many other trails lead throughout the Merced River watershed, notably the John Muir Trail, which starts near Happy Isles and climbs the Giant Staircase, past Vernal and Nevada Falls, into Little Yosemite Valley and north along Sunrise Creek to join the Pacific Crest Trail near Tuolumne Meadows.