San Geronimo Creek | |
---|---|
Etymology | Spanish language |
Location | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
Region | Marin County |
District | West Marin |
Cities | Forest Knolls, Lagunitas, San Geronimo, Woodacre |
Physical characteristics | |
Source | California Coast Ranges |
• location | 3 mi (5 km) west of Lucas Valley |
• coordinates | 37°59′42″N122°38′22″W / 37.99500°N 122.63944°W [1] |
Mouth | Lagunitas Creek |
• coordinates | 38°0′17″N122°42′32″W / 38.00472°N 122.70889°W Coordinates: 38°0′17″N122°42′32″W / 38.00472°N 122.70889°W [1] |
• elevation | 161 ft (49 m) [1] |
Discharge | |
• location | inkwells |
San Geronimo Creek is a stream in Marin County, California, United States, which feeds into Lagunitas Creek below Kent Lake. [2]
The creek rises in the hills west of the town of Fairfax. It descends northward to Woodacre, where it turns westward and parallels Sir Francis Drake Boulevard through the villages of San Geronimo, Forest Knolls, and Lagunitas. It then turns southwestward and joins Lagunitas Creek at the eastern edge of the Samuel P. Taylor State Park.
The 6000 acre San Geronimo Creek watershed is within the 60,000 acre Lagunitas Creek Watershed, which is home to the largest-remaining wild run of coho salmon in central California. These coho are part of the "Central California Coast Evolutionarily Significant Unit," or CCC ESU, and are listed as "endangered" at both the state and federal level.
Efforts are also being made to protect and restore streams and habitat in the San Geronimo Valley, where upwards of 20% of the Lagunitas salmon spawn each year and where as much as 1/5 of the juvenile salmon (or fry) spend their entire freshwater lives.[ citation needed ]
Spawning salmon and trout may be viewed at Roy's Pools, located about 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Fairfax. There are jump pools and a fish ladder. [3]
At least seven bridges span San Geronimo Creek: [4]
Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat is San Rafael. Marin County is across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, and is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Lagunitas-Forest Knolls is a census-designated place, composed of two unincorporated areas in the western half of the San Geronimo Valley in Marin County, California. It is located to the west of San Geronimo and Woodacre. The population was 1,924 at the 2020 census.
San Geronimo Valley is located in Marin County, California, composed of four unincorporated towns: Woodacre, San Geronimo, Forest Knolls, and Lagunitas. It is a fairly close-knit community, with a rather liberal citizenry. The farther west one goes along the valley, the more forested the land becomes. The valley is bisected roughly east-to-west by Sir Francis Drake Boulevard; a number of streets in the towns along this road were constructed on the former right-of-way of the Northwestern Pacific Railroad. The valley has numerous hiking/biking trails. Most of the residents reside on the south, shadier, side of the valley.
Lagunitas Creek is a 24 miles (39 km)-long northward-flowing stream in Marin County, California. It is critically important to the largest spawning runs of endangered coho salmon in the Central California Coast Coho salmon Evolutionary Significant Unit. The stream's headwaters begin on the northern slopes of Mount Tamalpais in the Coast Range and terminate in southeast Tomales Bay, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of Point Reyes Station, California. Lagunitas Creek feeds several reservoirs on Mt. Tamalpais that supply a major portion of the county's drinking water.
The Laguna de Santa Rosa is a 22-mile-long (35 km) wetland complex that drains a 254-square-mile (660 km2) watershed encompassing most of the Santa Rosa Plain in Sonoma County, California, United States.
San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Historically it was called the Arroyo de San Francisco by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. San Francisquito Creek courses through the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. The creek and its Los Trancos Creek tributary define the boundary between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
Redwood Creek is a mostly perennial stream in Marin County, California. 4.7 miles (7.6 km) long, it drains a 7-square-mile (18 km2) watershed which includes the Muir Woods National Monument, and reaches the Pacific Ocean north of the Golden Gate at Muir Beach.
Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio is a 4.1-mile-long (6.6 km) year-round stream in southern Marin County, California, United States. This watercourse is also known as Corte Madera Creek, although the actual stream of that name flows into San Francisco Bay further north at Point San Quentin. This watercourse has a catchment basin of about 8 square miles (21 km2) and drains the south-eastern slopes of Mount Tamalpais and much of the area in and around the town of Mill Valley; this stream discharges to Richardson Bay.
Sir Francis Drake Boulevard is an approximately 43.8 mile east–west arterial road in Marin County, California, running from the trailhead for Point Reyes Lighthouse at the end of the Point Reyes Peninsula to Interstate 580 just west of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. It is a main thoroughfare through the communities of Inverness, Point Reyes Station, Olema, Lagunitas-Forest Knolls, San Geronimo, Woodacre, Fairfax, San Anselmo, Ross, Kentfield, Greenbrae, and Larkspur. The road overlaps State Route 1 between Point Reyes Station and Olema.
Kent Lake is a reservoir in western Marin County, California formed by the construction of Peters Dam across Lagunitas Creek. Built in 1954, the lake is the most recent lake of the Marin Municipal Water District, as well as the largest. It lies to the west of Alpine Lake; among the five major lakes in the area it is the only one to the west of Fairfax-Bolinas Road.
Lake Lagunitas is a reservoir on Lagunitas Creek in Marin County, California.
Nicasio Creek is an 11.9-mile-long (19.2 km) stream in Marin County, California, United States and is the primary tributary of Lagunitas Creek, which flows, in turn, into Tomales Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. The Nicasio Reservoir, formed in 1961 by Seeger Dam, is located on this stream.
Maacama Creek is a 7.3-mile-long (11.7 km) stream in northern Sonoma County, California, U.S.A., which empties into the Russian River near the city of Healdsburg.
Pine Gulch Creek is a 7.6-mile-long (12.2 km) south-flowing stream in western Marin County, California, United States which empties into Bolinas Lagoon.
Novato Creek is a stream in eastern Marin County, California, United States. It originates in highlands between Red Hill and Mount Burdell above the city of Novato, California, and flows 17 miles (27 km) before emptying into San Pablo Bay south of Petaluma Point.
Lynch Creek is a 7.1-mile-long (11.4 km) stream in Sonoma County, California, United States which discharges into the Petaluma River.
SPAWN, the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, is a project of the Turtle Island Restoration Network (TIRN), a United States 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental organization.
Jewell was an unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It was located 11 miles (18 km) west-southwest of Novato.
Corte Madera Creek is a short stream which flows southeast for 4.5 miles (7.2 km) in Marin County, California. Corte Madera Creek is formed by the confluence of San Anselmo Creek and Ross Creek in Ross and entering a tidal marsh at Kentfield before connecting to San Francisco Bay near Corte Madera.
The Lagunitas School District is a public K-8 school district located 18 miles northwest of San Francisco in western-central Marin County, California. The district serves students in the unincorporated San Geronimo Valley, including Woodacre, San Geronimo, Forest Knolls, and Lagunitas.