Carrizo Creek (Imperial County, California)

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Carrizo Creek, is a stream that arises in the mountains of San Diego County, California, and terminates in Carrizo Wash in Imperial County, a tributary in turn to San Felipe Creek that terminates in the Salton Sea. [1]

The source of Carrizo Creek, is in San Diego County, 1.2 miles north of the California-Mexico State boundary, at 32°38′09″N116°07′05″W / 32.63583°N 116.11806°W / 32.63583; -116.11806 at an elevation of 3,210 feet, on the west side of the divide between Jacumba Valley and the valley of upper Boulder Creek. Carrizo Creek flows west then north northwest through Jacumba Valley then north through Carrizo Gorge and Carrizo Canyon, into Carrizo Valley where it is joined on the left by Vallecito Creek, as it turns east through the Carrizo Badlands where 3 miles east of the site of the old Carrizo Creek Station, at an elevation of 322 feet / 98 meters, it becomes Carrizo Wash. [1] Carrizo Wash terminates at its confluence with San Felipe Creek at 33°05′54″N115°55′38″W / 33.09833°N 115.92722°W / 33.09833; -115.92722 .

History

Carrizo Creek, its wash and its tributary, Vallecito Creek, were the watercourses that carved the pathway from the Peninsular Ranges of Southern California through the Carrizo Badlands to the Colorado Desert. They provided a pathway and water for Native Americans travelers out into the desert and on to the Colorado River along the course of the distributary New or Alamo Rivers. Subsequently, from 1828 it was similarly used by Mexican travelers on the route of the Sonora Road to Alta California, then by Americans on Cooke's Wagon Road and its successor the Southern Emigrant Trail. It was the route taken into California by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Overland Mail Company. Both companies used the Carrizo Creek Station at the lower end if the creek in the badlands.

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Vallecito, San Diego County, California Former settlement

Vallecito, in San Diego County, California is an oasis of cienegas and salt grass along Vallecito Creek and a former settlement on the edge of the Colorado Desert in the Vallecito Valley. Its Spanish name is translated as "little valley". Vallecito was located at the apex of the gap in the Carrizo Badlands created by Carrizo Creek and its wash in its lower reach, to which Vallecito Creek is a tributary. The springs of Vallecito, like many in the vicinity, are a product of the faults that run along the base of the Peninsular Ranges to the west.

Palm Spring Station is a former Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoach station located at Palm Spring in San Diego County, California. This station built in 1858 by division agent, Warren F. Hall is commemorated by California State Historical Marker Number 639 Palm Spring.

Palm Spring is a spring in Mesquite Oasis, a desert oasis amidst a mesquite thicket and a few palms, close to Carrizo Creek, within the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in San Diego County, California.

Carrizo Creek Station, a former stage station of the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and Butterfield Overland Mail, located in Imperial County, California just east of the San Diego County line. It lies within the boundaries of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park just west of the Carrizo Impact Area. Its site is located along the bank of Carrizo Creek.

Oriflamme Canyon is a steep mountain canyon, in San Diego County, California that descends from its head in the Laguna Mountains, at 32°56′41″N116°29′45″W, in an arc northwestward then northeastward to join Rodriguez Canyon at the northwest end of Mason Valley, where Vallecito Wash has its source.

Green Valley, is a valley in the Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego County, California. The Sweetwater River flows through Green Valley, and has its source at the top of Upper Green Valley.

Carrizo Badlands

The Carrizo Badlands are a landform of badlands that lie within Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in eastern San Diego County, and in the Carrizo Impact Area in western Imperial County, in Southern California.

Vallecito Creek is a tributary stream of Carrizo Creek, in San Diego County, California.

San Felipe Creek is a stream in Imperial and San Diego Counties of California. It arises in the Volcan Mountains of San Diego County 33°11′57″N116°37′35″W, and runs eastward, gathering the waters of most of the eastern slope of the mountains and desert of the county before it empties into the Salton Sea. It is probably the last remaining perennial natural desert stream in the Colorado Desert region. In 1974, the San Felipe Creek Area was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

Mason Valley is a valley in San Diego County, California. Mason Valley was named after a settler, James E. Mason who established a ranch in the valley in the later 19th century. The mouth of the valley is at an elevation of 1,995 feet / 608 meters, at the point where the valley narrows into a canyon where the Vallecito Wash continues as Vallecito Creek and passes between the Sawtooth Range and the Vallecito Mountains. The head of Mason Valley is at an elevation of 2550 feet at 33°01′05″N116°28′53″W at the junction of Oriflamme Canyon and Rodriguez Canyon where Vallecito Wash has its source.

Vallecito Wash is a wash part of Vallecito Creek, a tributary stream of Carrizo Creek, in San Diego County, California.

Upper Green Valley is a valley in the Cuyamaca Mountains in San Diego County, California. Its mouth lies at an elevation of 4,163 feet / 1,269 meters. Its head is at 32°59′03″N116°32′01″W, at an elevation of 4,890 feet. The Sweetwater River has its source at the top of Upper Green Valley.

Jacumba Valley is a valley in San Diego County, California. Its head is at 32°37′00″N116°10′07″W Carrizo Creek has its source in Jacumba Valley, 1.2 miles north of the California-Mexico State boundary, at 32°38′09″N116°07′05″W at an elevation of 3,210 feet, on the west side of the divide between Jacumba Valley and the valley of upper Boulder Creek. Carrizo Creek flows west then north northwest through Jacumba Valley to its mouth at the head of Carrizo Gorge.

Carrizo Gorge Protected wilderness area in California, United States

Carrizo Gorge is a valley in the Jacumba Mountains, in San Diego County, California. Its mouth is at an elevation of 1,411 feet / 430 meters, where it widens out to become Carrizo Canyon, 1 mile northeast of Palm Grove. Its head is located in the Jacumba Mountains, 1.5 miles north of Round Mountain, at and elevation of 2,600 feet, at 32°39′38″N116°11′28″W.

Carrizo Valley is a valley between the Vallecito Mountains and Carrizo Badlands to the north and the Tierra Blanca Mountains, Jacumba Mountains and Coyote Mountains on the south, in San Diego County, California. Its mouth is at an elevation or 623 feet / 190 meters. Its source is at an elevation of 1,315 feet at 32°58′07″N116°18′37″W at the mouth of the narrow Carrizo Canyon where Vallecito Creek passes between the Tierra Blanca Mountains and Vallecito Mountains.

Carrizo Wash is a wash with its head at the mouth of Carrizo Creek in the Carrizo Badlands located at 32°53′03″N115°59′41″W, and its mouth at its confluence with San Felipe Creek, at an elevation of -138 feet / -42 meters below sea level.

Palm Canyon Wash is an arroyo and tributary ephemeral stream or wash running east from the Jacumba Mountains in San Diego County, California to its confluence with Coyote Wash, east northeast of Ocotillo in the Yuha Desert of Imperial County, California at an elevation of 239 feet / 73 meters. Its source is on the east slope of the Jacumba Mountains at 32°42′28″N116°10′10″W, at an elevation of 4,000 feet.

References

Coordinates: 32°52′35″N116°02′45″W / 32.87639°N 116.04583°W / 32.87639; -116.04583


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