The Quinn River, once known as the Queen River, is an

intermittent river Intermittent, temporary or seasonal rivers or streams cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years. Such rivers drain large arid and semi-arid areas, covering approximately a third of the Earth's surface. The extent of tempora ...

, approximately long, in the desert of northwestern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

in the United States. It drains an enclosed basin inside the larger

Great Basin The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...

. It rises in northeastern Humboldt County, on the west side of the Santa Rosa Range, just south of the

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

state line. Its course flows southwest, through the main Nevada lands of the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribes and then south and southwest, receiving the Kings River flowing south from Kings River Valley. The Quinn River evaporates in a sink at the

Black Rock Desert The Black Rock Desert is a semi-arid region (in the Great Basin shrub steppe ecoregion) of lava beds and Dry lake, playa, or alkali flats, situated in the Black Rock Desert–High Rock Canyon Emigrant Trails National Conservation Area, a silt ...

, south of the Black Rock Range.

Catchment

The Quinn River is the largest river in the region, starting in the Santa Rosa Range and ending in the Quinn River Sink on the playa south of the Black Rock Range. The watershed covers including the Upper and Lower Quinn River, Smoke Creek Desert, Massacre Lake, and Thousand Creek/Virgin Valley watersheds of northwestern Nevada as well as small parts across the border of Oregon.

Quinn River Sink

The Quinn River Sink is the mouth of the Quinn River and is a geographic sink of around , where the Quinn River discharges and evaporates about south-southwest of Black Rock Hot Springs.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Nevada Rivers of Humboldt County, Nevada Rivers of Malheur County, Oregon Rivers of the Great Basin

Catchment

Quinn River Sink

See also

References