Truckee River Watershed: Dog Creek and Sunrise Creek

We lumped Dog Creek and Sunrise Creek together due to size and location -- basically, Sunrise Creek is teensy and it's right next to Dog Creek.Dog Creek and Sunrise Creek sit up in Verdi, flowing down from the east-facing mountains between Stampede Reservoir and Verdi and into the Truckee River.Dog Creek passes through Dog Valley, a beautiful spot in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest made up forests, streams and meadows. Once Dog Creek enters Nevada, it pretty quickly empties into the Truckee River.According to the Forest Service, "Dog Valley is... home to two rare plant species, Dog Valley ivesia and Webber’s ivesia. Dog Valley ivesia can only be found in Dog Valley."Other plant-life along Dog Creek includes mahala mat, silvery lupine, and chokecherry, shooting stars, delphinium, and Rydberg’s penstemon.Sunrise Creek is just a bit upstream from Dog Creek, and thanks to its lack of activity, is an excellent habitat for wildlife and birds.Sunrise Creek drops down steeply from the mountains before it ends up in the Truckee River.Riparian plants along this tributary include willow, cottonwood, alder, wood rose, service berry, choke cherry, rushes, sedges, horsetails and wildflowers.Wildlife found around both Sunrise Creek and Dog Creek is similar across the entire watershed, and includes:  black bear, bobcat, red fox, rattlesnake, bald eagle, golden eagle, barn owl, cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, pacific chorus frog, and monarch butterfly.