fmount These watercourses (rivers, creeks, sloughs, etc.) in the San Francisco Bay Area are grouped according to the bodies of water they flow into. Tributaries are listed under the watercourses they feed, sorted by the elevation of the confluence so that tributaries entering nearest the sea appear first. Numbers in parentheses are Geographic Names Information System feature identifiers.
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma County north of Bodega Head, listed from north to south: [1]
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma County between the Gualala and Russian Rivers, numbered from north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean in Sonoma County between Goat Rock Beach and Bodega Head, numbered from north to south:
Watercourses which feed into Bodega Bay, numbered clockwise from Bodega Head to Sand Point:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean in Marin County south of Sand Point, listed from north to south:
Watercourses which feed into Tomales Bay, numbered clockwise from Sand Point to Tomales Point:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean between Tomales Point and Bolinas, numbered north to south: [2]
Watercourses which feed into Bolinas Lagoon, numbered clockwise from Bolinas to Stinson Beach:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean between Stinson Beach and the Golden Gate, numbered north to south:
Watercourses which feed into San Francisco Bay and its tributary bays between the Golden Gate and Point San Pedro, numbered south to north:
Watercourses which feed into San Pablo Bay or the Carquinez Strait between Point San Pedro and the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, numbered west to east:
Watercourses which feed into Lake Berryessa, numbered clockwise from Monticello Dam:
Watercourses which feed into Suisun Bay and Grizzly Bay, listed clockwise from Benicia to Martinez:
For tributaries of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, see List of rivers in California.
Watercourses which feed into the Carquinez Strait or San Pablo Bay between the Benicia-Martinez Bridge and Point San Pablo, numbered east to west:
Watercourses which feed into the east shore of San Francisco Bay between Point San Pablo and the Bay Bridge, numbered north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the east shore of San Francisco Bay between the Bay Bridge and the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge, numbered from north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the east shore of San Francisco Bay between the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge and the Dumbarton Bridge, listed north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the San Francisco Bay south of the Dumbarton Bridge, listed clockwise:
Watercourses which feed into the west shore of San Francisco Bay between the Dumbarton Bridge and the Golden Gate, listed south to north:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean between the Golden Gate and Thornton Beach, from north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean between Thornton Beach and Miramontes Point, numbered north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean between Miramontes Point and Pigeon Point, numbered north to south:
Watercourses which feed into the Pacific Ocean south of Pigeon Point, numbered north to south:
Montclair is a hillside neighborhood in Oakland, California, United States. Montclair is located along the western slope of the Oakland Hills from a valley formed by the Hayward Fault to the upper ridge of the hills.
Alameda Creek is a large perennial stream in the San Francisco Bay Area. The creek runs for 45 miles (72 km) from a lake northeast of Packard Ridge to the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay by way of Niles Canyon and a flood control channel. Along its course, Alameda Creek provides wildlife habitat, water supply, a conduit for flood waters, opportunities for recreation, and a host of aesthetic and environmental values. The creek and three major reservoirs in the watershed are used as water supply by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Water District and Zone 7 Water Agency. Within the watershed can be found some of the highest peaks and tallest waterfall in the East Bay, over a dozen regional parks, and notable natural landmarks such as the cascades at Little Yosemite and the wildflower-strewn grasslands and oak savannahs of the Sunol Regional Wilderness. After an absence of half a century, ocean-run steelhead trout are able to return to Alameda Creek to mingle with remnant rainbow trout populations. Completion of a series of dam removal and fish passage projects, along with improved stream flows for cold-water fish and planned habitat restoration, enable steelhead trout and Chinook salmon to access up to 20 miles (32 km) of spawning and rearing habitat in Alameda Creek and its tributaries. The first juvenile trout migrating downstream from the upper watershed through lower Alameda Creek toward San Francisco Bay was detected and documented in April 2023.
The Russian River is a southward-flowing river that drains 1,485 sq mi (3,850 km2) of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately 1,600,000 acre feet (2.0 km3), it is the second-largest river flowing through the nine-county Greater San Francisco Bay Area, with a mainstem 115 mi (185 km) long.
Pilarcitos Creek is a 13.5-mile-long (21.7 km) coastal stream in San Mateo County, California, United States, that rises on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains and descends through Pilarcitos Canyon to discharge into the Pacific Ocean Half Moon Bay State Beach.
Tolay Creek is a 12.5-mile-long (20.1 km) southward-flowing stream in southern Sonoma County, California, United States, which flows through Tolay Lake and ends in north San Pablo Bay.
Sausal Creek, 3.1 miles (5.0 km) long, is one of the principal creeks in Oakland, California.
San Pedro Creek is a perennial stream in the City of Pacifica, San Mateo County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area whose tributaries originate on Sweeney Ridge in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Montara Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains.The creek mainstem flows 2.5 miles (4.0 km) through the San Pedro Valley to its mouth near Shelter Cove of the Pacific Ocean The stream is notable as the 1769 campsite for Gaspar de Portolà before he ascended Sweeney Ridge and discovered San Francisco Bay.
San Gregorio Creek is a river in San Mateo County, California. Its tributaries originate on the western ridges of the Santa Cruz Mountains whence it courses southwest through steep forested canyons. The San Gregorio Creek mainstem begins at the confluence of Alpine and La Honda Creeks, whence it flows 12 miles (19 km) through rolling grasslands and pasturelands until it meets the Pacific Ocean at San Gregorio State Beach. It traverses the small unincorporated communities of La Honda, San Gregorio, Redwood Terrace and Sky Londa.
Walker Creek is a northwest-flowing stream in western Marin County, California, United States. It originates at the confluence of Salmon Creek and Arroyo Sausal, and empties into Tomales Bay south of Dillon Beach, California.
Adobe Creek, historically San Antonio Creek, is a 14.2-mile-long (22.9 km) northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto on its way to the Palo Alto Flood Basin and thence to southwestern San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Historically, Adobe Creek was a perennial stream and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from the Bay, but these salmonids are now blocked by numerous flood control structures, including a tidal gate at the creek's mouth and a long concretized rectangular channel culminating in an impassable drop structure at El Camino Real. The co-founders of Adobe Systems both lived on Adobe Creek.
Saratoga Creek is a north-northeast flowing creek in Santa Clara County, California.
Bear Creek, or Bear Gulch Creek, is a 6.6-mile-long (10.6 km) southeastward-flowing stream originating north of the summit of Sierra Morena in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the community of Kings Mountain in San Mateo County, California, United States. It flows through the town of Woodside. Bear Creek and Corte Madera Creek join to become San Francisquito Creek in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at Stanford University.
Laguna Creek is a perennial stream that flows northwesterly for 2.6-mile (4.2 km) along the San Andreas Fault from Woodside in San Mateo County, California and, after crossing the Phleger Estate and Filoli, enters Upper Crystal Springs Reservoir, where it is a historic tributary to San Mateo Creek. San Mateo Creek then carries its waters over Crystal Springs Dam northeast to San Francisco Bay.
Sausal Creek is a 3.0-mile-long (4.8 km) northwesterly-flowing stream originating in Portola Valley along the northeastern edge of the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, in San Mateo County, California, United States. After being joined by Alambique Creek it flows through Middle Searsville Marsh/Pond before ending at its confluence with Corte Madera Creek in a natural marsh above Searsville Reservoir on Stanford University lands. Below Searsville Reservoir and Dam, Corte Madera Creek joins with Bear Creek to form San Francisquito Creek and flows to San Francisco Bay.
Cordilleras Creek is a 3.8-mile-long (6.1 km) northward-flowing stream originating in the Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. It forms the border between San Carlos and Redwood City in San Mateo County, California, United States before entering Smith Slough where its waters course to Steinberger Slough and thence to San Francisco Bay.
Alamitos Creek or Los Alamitos Creek is a 7.7-mile-long (12.4 km) creek in San Jose, California, which becomes the Guadalupe River when it exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek. Los Alamitos Creek is located in Almaden Valley and originates from the Los Capitancillos Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near New Almaden. This creek flows through the Valley's Guadalupe Watershed, which is owned by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The creek flows in a generally northwesterly direction after rounding the Los Capitancillos Ridge and the town of New Almaden, in the southwest corner, before ambling along the Santa Teresa Hills on northeast side of the Almaden Valley. Its environment has some relatively undisturbed areas and considerable lengths of suburban residential character. Originally called Arroyo de los Alamitos, the creek's name is derived from "little poplar", "alamo" being the Spanish word for "poplar" or "cottonwood".