It is located 131 miles (211 kilometers) north of Sacramento, 31 mi (50 km) south of Redding, and it is bisected by Interstate 5.

Located in the northernmost part of California’s Central Valley, the city marks the northern end of a vast contiguously cultivated area that extends all the way to Bakersfield, 400 mi (640 km) to the south.

Mildly rugged terrain, used as rangeland, separates Red Bluff from the next crop areas to the north in Cottonwood.

[6] Located at the head of navigation on the Sacramento River, the town flourished in the mid- to late 19th century as a landing point for miners heading to the Trinity County gold fields and later as a temporary terminus for the Southern Pacific Railroad's northward expansion.

Red Bluff is on the northern edge of the Sacramento Valley, and is the third=largest city in the Shasta Cascade region.

In the early 19th century, the Siskiyou Trail was the main north-south path connecting Northern California and Southern Oregon first used by the Native Americans and later fur trappers and hunters.

The first European to settle the northern Sacramento Valley in what was then Alta California was Peter Lassen, who in 1844 was granted the 24,000-acre (97 km2) Rancho Bosquejo tract from the Mexican government near present-day Vina, about 20 mi (32 km) southeast of Red Bluff.

There, he proposed to establish a town, but his attempts were thwarted when the California Gold Rush stole the focus of the settlers he had gathered in Missouri.

Lassen's initial attempt to navigate to his ranch in 1849 had failed, but the following year, a riverboat managed to make the arduous 125-mile (201 km) journey from Sacramento in 5 months before ultimately being sunk.

First known as Leodocia then Covertsburg, by the time a post office was established on October 17, 1853 residents had settled on the name Red Bluff, in recognition of the titular geographical features once prominent along the banks of the Sacramento River.

As early as 1854, committees were brought together at Red Bluff to plan a railroad route connecting California to southern Oregon through the Siskyou Mountains via Nobles Pass.

The railroad finally reached Red Bluff in 1872, and for a few years, it was the terminus, increasing the town's wealth greatly.

Mining was largely replaced by agriculture, and Red Bluff remained a vital shipping point by rail and eventually highway.

On June 27, 2020, a local Walmart distribution center was the site of a workplace shooting, in which one employee was killed and another four were wounded.

[12] Red Bluff has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csa) with cool, wet winters and hot, dry summers.