Approximately 165 miles long, the Kern River is the most southern of the rivers in the San Joaquin Valley. The head waters of the Kern are located near the base of Mount Whitney and the river’s main fork joins its major tributary, the South Fork, near Isabella Reservoir. From Isabella Reservoir to just before Bakersfield, the river drops over 2,000 feet in elevation through the Kern River Canyon. It is the only major river in the Sierra Nevada mountain range that drains in a southerly direction.
Before the late 19th century, the Kern River emptied in to the Kern and Buena Vista Lakes at the southern end of Kern County, then drained in to Tulare Lake via Buena Vista Slough. In flood years, the river would actually flow in to the San Joaquin River.
Since the late 19th century the Kern has been primarily diverted for irrigation and recharging aquifers. Some water from the Kern is delivered to Lake Webb and Lake Evans, two small lakes within the former Buena Vista Lakebed. The lakes were created in 1973 for recreational use, holding 6,800 acre-feet of water combined.[7] Crops are grown in the rest of the former lakebed. In extremely wet years, the river will reach the Tulare Lake basin through a series of sloughs and flood channels.
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