Kings River (California) - Course

Course

It arises in the Sierra Nevada, consisting of three forks. The Middle and South Forks start in Kings Canyon National Park, while the North Fork starts in the John Muir Wilderness. The South Fork flows in Kings Canyon: a spectacular 8,000-foot (2,400 m) deep glacial valley. The forks join in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Fresno County, California, where the river becomes an attraction for whitewater rafting (class 3 rapids). From that point, the Kings River flows about 125 miles (200 km) to the Tulare Lake bed, with a surface elevation at 56 m (184 ft), near Stratford, California.

In the foothills, the water from the river is impounded at Pine Flat Dam. In the Central Valley, the river flows south of Fresno, California, where its water is diverted for agriculture. The Kings River splits six miles (10 km) north of Lemoore into a set of North and South Fork distributaries. These forks join again nearly five miles (8 km) west of Lemoore. Clark's Fork distributary splits off from the South Fork and flows 5.5 miles (9 km) to join the returning North Fork distributary. The North Fork distributary flows westward to the point where it joins the Fresno Slough, a link to the San Joaquin River when in flood, where its channel turns southwest and rejoins the main channel 6 miles (10 km) west-northwest of Lemoore. The river flows through an artificial channel into the normally dry Tulare Lake bed about ten miles (16 km) south of Stratford.