Shasta Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam across the Sacramento River in the northern part of California, at the north end of the Sacramento Valley. The dam mainly serves long-term water storage and flood control in its reservoir, Shasta Lake. The lake has of mostly steep mountainous shoreline covered with tall evergreen trees and manzanita. The lake's maximum depth is . Water released from the lake generates hydroelectric power. At high, the dam is the ninth-tallest dam in the United States and forms the largest reservoir in California.