Sacramento Valley

The Sacramento Valley is the northern part of California's Central Valley, lying north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and drained by the Sacramento River, and spans parts of ten Northern California counties. It is bordered by the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Cascade Range and Klamath Mountains to the north, and the Coast Range to the west, with a landscape of flat grassland that grows more forested toward the Sierra foothills; the Sutter Buttes, described as the smallest mountain range in the world, rise as a volcanic remnant near Yuba City. Compared with the drier San Joaquin Valley to its south, the Sacramento Valley is comparatively water-rich, with foothill precipitation of 25 to 60 inches a year supporting water-intensive crops such as rice and walnuts, though recent droughts since 2010 have strained its water supply.