Steamboat Creek: 3.2015

Steamboat Creek is the only major tributary to the Truckee River in the lower watershed (from the California/Nevada border). Steamboat Creek drains Washoe and Little Washoe Lake as it meanders through Pleasant Valley, Steamboat Hot Springs and the Truckee Meadows' South Meadows including the ranches Curti, Damonte, Double Diamond, Butler (where it flows through a natural narrows between the Virginia Mountains and the Huffaker Hills confluding with the Alexander Lake drainage of Whites and Thomas creeks and Damonte and Huffaker Springs) and Bella Vista.

The creek finally flows through Rosewood Lakes Golf Course and near UNR Farms before confluding with the Truckee River near the Vista Gates in Sparks at the third water treatment plant on the river.
Beaver dams abound on the leg of the river as it passes from northwest Pleasant Valley, passing under old 395/Virginia Street into the western side of Pleasant Valley where it hugs the foot of the Virginia Range.
Beaver Dams abound near Browns Pond on Steamboat Creek not long after leaving its source, Little Washoe Lake. The Creek holds fast to the base of the Virginia Range through Pleasant Valley while being joined by Browns, Jones and Galena Creeks before spreading into various open channels and ditches on the north side of Geiger Grade.

More tributaries contribute to Steamboat Creek before it confludes with the Truckee River as the only significant tributary in the lower Truckee watershed (from the NV border east to the Derby Dam diversion and Pyramid Lake).