The valley formed by the river has a flat, gravel, trekking trail of 3.5 miles (5.6 km), south of Mount Roberts.

Practically all of the drainage comes into the upper basin, where the walls of the valley are steep, though up to an elevation of about 1,800 feet (550 m), they are covered with alder brush and grass, and are generally sodded nearly to the summit of the surrounding ridges.

The generally smooth, but somewhat corrugated character of the slopes points to the molding action of ice, and the recency of glaciation is indicated by the shallowness of the rills, which collect the drainage from the mountain sides.

On the southeast ridge of Sheep Mountain and extending southeastward for 1.5 miles (2.4 km) is a somewhat irregular dike of the Coast Range-type of diorite.

[2] Notable flora reported are berries on which the bears feed in the entire valley, wild geranium, columbine, Dodecatheon, or "shooting stars", Fritillaria affinis or "chocolate lilies", blueberry and salmonberry bushes.

[4] Sheep Creek Hatchery was established in 1980 with the objective of incubating about 40 million pink and/or chum salmon for use in commercial fisheries.