| Big Canyon Creek | |
|---|---|
   | |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • coordinates | 38°51′29″N122°43′52″W / 38.8579579°N 122.7311008°W |
| Mouth | Putah Creek |
• coordinates | 38°48′22″N122°36′54″W / 38.806144°N 122.615064°W Coordinates: 38°48′22″N122°36′54″W / 38.806144°N 122.615064°W |
• elevation | 1,040 feet (320 m) |
| Length | 8 miles (13 km) |
Big Canyon Creek is a creek in Lake County, California. It is a tributary of Putah Creek.
Big Canyon Creek is an 8 miles (13 km) long tributary of Putah Creek. Its mouth is at an elevation of 1,040 feet (320 m). [1] Big Canyon Creek supplies rainfall to the Putah Creek drainage with very little snowmelt or base flow. It does not contain any reservoirs to provide surface storage and regulate flows. [2] In 1912 Warden R. L. Sinkey wrote of Putah Creek, "Becomes dry anywhere below Winters during the summer months. Putah Creek is just a small stream in the summertime. St. Helena Creek, Anderson Creek, Dry Creek run just small streams. Big Canyon Creek runs more water, I think, than all the rest". [3]
The Köppen climate classification is Csb : Warm-summer Mediterranean climate. [4]
Boggs Mountain is an elongated rolling highland. [5] It forms a topographical divide separating Big Canyon Creek to the east from Kelsey Creek to the west. [6] Adams Springs is beside the creek, near its head. [7] William Robert Prather, who developed Adams Springs, corresponded with Thomas Edison in the late 1890s, who told him how to build a Pelton wheel in Big Canyon Creek to generate electricity for the resort. [8]
Big Canyon Road (107) runs along the lower part of the creek. There is a 24.6 feet (7.5 m) steel bridge that carries the road across the creek below the point where it is joined by Bad Creek. It was built in 1930 and reconstructed in 1993. As of November 2017 it was in poor condition and its structure had been appraised as "basically intolerable requiring high priority of replacement". [9]
| Stream | GNIS id | Parent | Mouth | Length | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coords | Elev ft | Elev m | mi | km | |||
| Big Canyon Creek | 219152 | Putah Creek | 38°48′22″N122°36′52″W / 38.80611°N 122.61444°W | 1,040 | 320 | 8 | 13 |
| ←Mill Creek (Big Canyon Creek) | 228668 | Big Canyon Creek | 38°51′02″N122°42′02″W / 38.85056°N 122.70056°W | 2,119 | 646 | 1.5 | 2.4 |
| ←Spikenard Creek | 235198 | Big Canyon Creek | 38°50′59″N122°40′31″W / 38.84972°N 122.67528°W | 1,640 | 500 | 2 | 3.2 |
| ←Bad Creek | 218510 | Big Canyon Creek | 38°50′55″N122°40′00″W / 38.84861°N 122.66667°W | 1,568 | 478 | 1 | 1.6 |
| ←Malo Creek | 227987 | Big Canyon Creek | 38°49′54″N122°38′41″W / 38.83167°N 122.64472°W | 1,270 | 390 | 2 | 3.2 |
| Mountains |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Watercourses | ||
The Kern River, previously Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is a Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately 165 miles (270 km) long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for whitewater rafting and kayaking. It is the southernmost major river system in the Sierra Nevada, and is the only major river in the Sierra that drains in a southerly direction.
Piru Creek is a major stream, about 71 miles (114 km) long, in northern Los Angeles County and eastern Ventura County, California. It is a tributary of the Santa Clara River, the largest stream system in Southern California that is still relatively natural.
Putah Creek is a major stream in Northern California, a tributary of the Yolo Bypass, and ultimately, the Sacramento River. The 85-mile-long (137 km) creek has its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains, a part of the Coast Range, and flows east through two dams. First, Monticello Dam forms Lake Berryessa, below which Putah Creek forms the border of Yolo and Solano Counties, and then flows to the Putah Diversion Dam and Lake Solano. After several drought years in the late 1980s, the majority of Putah Creek went dry, prompting a landmark lawsuit that resulted in the signing of the Putah Creek Accord in 2000. The Accord established releases from the dams to maintain stream flows in Putah Creek, with natural flow regimes which spike in winter/spring and ebb in summer/fall. The restoration of natural flow regimes has resulted in a doubling of riparian bird species and a return of spawning native steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, as well as protecting the livelihood of farmers on the lower watershed.
Cobb Mountain is the tallest mountain in the Mayacamas Mountains of California.
Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest is a state forest in Lake County, California that covers the northwest of Boggs Mountain. It was founded in 1949, and came into operation in 1950 when most of the site had been clear cut. The purpose was to demonstrate good practices in restoring and managing a forest. The state forest was open for recreational use, including camping, hiking, mountain biking etc. The 2015 Valley Fire destroyed 80% of the trees. The state forest as of 2021 was replanting saplings.
San Diego Creek is a 16-mile (26 km) urban waterway flowing into Upper Newport Bay in Orange County, California in the United States. Its watershed covers 112.2 square miles (291 km2) in parts of eight cities, including Irvine, Tustin, and Costa Mesa. From its headwaters in Laguna Woods the creek flows northwest to its confluence with Peters Canyon Wash, where it turns abruptly southwest towards the bay. Most of the creek has been converted to a concrete flood control channel, but it also provides important aquatic and riparian habitat along its course and its tidal estuary.
The Vaca Mountains are a mountain range in Napa and Solano Counties, California that is one of the California Coast Ranges. They represent the easternmost of the Inner Coast Ranges in north−central California, and divide the Suisun Valley on their west, from the Sacramento Valley on their east.
Adams is an unincorporated community in Lake County, California. It was formerly Adams Springs, a summer resort developed around a small group of mineral water springs.
Castle Rock Springs was a resort Lake County, California built around a group of mineral springs, including one hot spring with relatively high volumes of water.
Big Tujunga Creek is a major stream in Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. From its headwaters high in the San Gabriel Mountains, it flows generally southwest for 28.8 miles (46.3 km), joining Little Tujunga Creek to form the Tujunga Wash near Pacoima. The stream is sometimes considered as one with the Tujunga Wash, which is the continuation of Big Tujunga to the Los Angeles River, bringing the total length to more than 40 miles (64 km). The name of the stream is derived from a Tongva village name.
The Middle Fork American River is one of three forks that form the American River in Northern California. It drains a large watershed in the high Sierra Nevada west of Lake Tahoe and northeast of Sacramento in Placer and El Dorado Counties, between the watersheds of the North Fork American River and South Fork American River. The Middle Fork joins with the North Fork near Auburn and they continue downstream to Folsom Lake as the North Fork, even though the Middle Fork carries a larger volume of water.
The South Fork San Joaquin River is the largest headwater of the San Joaquin River in central California, United States. About 48 miles (77 km) long, it drains an area of the high Sierra Nevada about 60 miles (97 km) northeast of Fresno.
Boggs Mountain is a mountain the Mayacamas Mountains in Lake County, California. Part of the mountain holds the Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest. About 80% of the trees were burned in the September 2015 Valley Fire.
Kelsey Creek is a watercourse in Lake County, California, United States, that feeds Clear Lake from the south. The watershed was forest-covered. In the lower parts it has been converted to farmland and for urban use. Higher up the forests have been cleared, regrown and cleared again. The northern part of the creek flows through a geothermal field that feeds power plants and hot springs. The wooded Cobb area in the higher part of the watershed holds resorts and resort communities, some dating to the 1850s.
Allen Springs is a group of mineral water springs in Lake County, California. From 1874 the springs were surrounded by a resort with a hotel, cottages, saloon, store and so on. The resort was turned into a private club in 1912 and had been abandoned by 1940. By 2021 the site had returned to nature.
Bartlett Creek is a creek in Lake County, California. It is a tributary of North Fork Cache Creek.
Harbin Mountain is a mountain in Lake County, California. It may be seen as a high point on a spur of Boggs Mountain or as a connected mountain to the southeast of Boggs Mountain.
Mahnke Peak is a 3,652 feet (1,113 m) mountain in Mendocino County, California.
The Blue Lakes are a string of two or three lakes in Lake County, California, set in a deep canyon. At one time they seem to have been in the Russian River watershed, but a recent geological upheaval cut them off from that basin and they now drain via Scotts Creek into Clear Lake in the Sacramento River basin. In the 19th and early 20th centuries there were several resorts around the lakes. Their waters have been highly altered by human activity and most of their native fish are lost, but they have a healthy population of largemouth bass.
Rivers and creeks in Lake County, California are listed below by river basin and alphabetically. Unless otherwise stated, the information is taken from the Geographic Names Information System maintained by the United States Geological Survey. Coordinates, elevations and lengths from this source are approximate.