An unmanned aerial system (UAS) was used to acquire red/green/blue (RGB) and hyperspectral image data from the American River in California November 5-7, 2018, to support research on remote sensing of rivers, specifically mapping salmon spawning locations (redds) as part of an overall salmon habitat assessment program. The RGB images were acquired uisng a DJI MAtrice 210 equipped with a Zenmuse 4S optical camera. Imagery was collected along several parallel flight lines to ensure full coverage of the study reach. Raw Zenmuse images were georeferenced using real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) and inertial motion unit (IMU) data recorded onboard the UAS and individual flight strips were combined into an orthorectified mosaic using Agisoft Metashape. The resulting orthoimage had a pixel size of 0.15 m. The georeferenced RGB ortho-image had accurate image coregistration with surveyed ground control targets used as checkpoints. The hyperspectral data were collected by the Nano-Hyperspec imaging system, manufactured by Headwall Photonics, Inc. The flight was conducted by the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Science Center and colleagues from the University of California Santa Barbara who also performed the initial radiometric and geometric data processing. The data were acquired from a DJI Matrice M600 UAS and have a spatial resolution (pixel size) of 0.15 m. The data set consists of 252 spectral bands spanning the visible and near infrared wavelength range from 398 - 956 nanometers. Reflectance retrieval was performed using a calibration tarp as an in-scene white reference. The image pixel values represent reflectances and are stored as floating point 32-bit single precision numbers. The image data file has a band sequential (BSQ) interleave and is in an ENVI-compatible file format with an associated header (*.hdr) text file. The initial hyperspectral ortho-image had poor alignment with field-surveyed ground control points (GCPs) and required additional georeferencing to improve horizontal accuracy. We used ENVI software tools to perform image-to-image registration using the RGB ortho-image as the base image and the hyperspectral image as the warp image. Following this initial radiometric and geometric processing, the hyperspectral ortho-mosaic was masked to include only the water area within the river channel. The images provided in this data release is focuses on the reach of the American River immediarely below Nimbus Dam. Supporting field data from this reach were collected in coordination with the acquisition of the remotely sensed data.