River
Humboldt River
531 km from source to mouth · United States.
United StatesFlows into Humboldt Sink
In numbers
Length
531km
Average flow
11m³/s
Basin
42,994km²
Drop
542m
from 1,713 m to 1,171 m
Country
1
The journey
From source to mouth
531 km of river and 9 stops on the way: 4 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmGreat Basinat 1,713 m
- 77 kmNorth Fork Humboldt Rivertributary
- 82 kmOsino668 people
- 97 kmElko20,564 people
- 111 kmSouth Fork Humboldt Rivertributary
- 229 kmBattle Mountain3,635 people
- 251 kmReese Rivertributary
- 333 kmHumboldt River Bridge
- 333 kmWinnemucca7,887 people
- 432 kmRye Patch Reservoir41 km²
- 531 kmHumboldt Sinkat 1,171 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in northern Nevada, United States
At the mouth it carries 11 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 227 seconds. It drops from 1,713 m to 1,171 m, 1.0 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 42,994 km², about the size of DK. 67,000 people live in it. Highest water: from February to April; lowest: January and from August to October. It is heavily dammed: reservoirs can hold 105% of a year's flow.
Where to start
- ElkoLargest city on its banks · 20,564 people
- Elko Regional Airport (EKO)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the cityCar hire at EKO airport (Elko)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water3 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From May to SeptemberThe best months to visit
Humboldt River, month by month
Highest water: from February to April
Lowest water: January and from August to October. Best months to visit: from May to September.
From about 0.0 m³/s in the lowest month to 78 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Humboldt River: the basin in numbers
42,596 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 67,000people live in the basin
- 2/km²people per km²
- 1,759maverage altitude of the basin
- 288mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 7.6°Caverage air temperature
- 2%protected areas
- 0.2%covered by lakes
- 0.4km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 9% Forest
- 2% Cropland
- 71% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Humboldt River: what you find on the way
- 33Weirs
- 3Boat ramps
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.2 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
Cross-checked with our atlases
Humboldt River in our other atlases
What our sister atlases know about the waterfalls on this river, the lakes it flows through, the beaches at its mouth, the mountains where it rises and the islands off its mouth.
1lake on its wayLakeyas
3mountains at the sourcePeakyas
Lakes and reservoirs (1)
Lakes it flows through, by Lakeyas
- Rye Patch Reservoirkm 43141km²
Lakeyas is coming soonOpen Lakeyas ↗
Mountains at the source (3)
Within 15 km of the source, by Peakyas
- Cedar Peak12 km away
- Oxley Peak8.0 km away
- Wells Peak14 km away
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
Tributaries (4)
Also: Reese River, South Fork Humboldt River, Little Humboldt River, North Fork Humboldt River
Where these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q1361278) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Our other atlases | Lakeyas, Peakyas — Wikidata · CC0; © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0; HydroLAKES · CC BY 4.0; NOAA OISST |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers or canyons?
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