| San Pablo Creek | |
|---|---|
 San Pablo Creek just behind the El Sobrante Library | |
  Location of the mouth of San Pablo Creek in California | |
| Native name | Spanish: Arroyo de San Pablo[2] |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Region | Contra Costa County |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Mulholland Hill |
| • location | Orinda, California |
| • coordinates | 37°52′1″N 122°8′58″W / 37.86694°N 122.14944°W[1] |
| • elevation | 750 ft (230 m) |
| Mouth | San Pablo Bay |
• location | west of San Pablo, California |
• coordinates | 37°58′35″N 122°23′0″W / 37.97639°N 122.38333°W[1] |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m)[1] |
| Basin size | 41 sq mi (110 km2) |
San Pablo Creek is an 18.7-mile-long (30.1 km)[3] creek in Contra Costa County, California, United States, which drains the canyon or valley between the San Pablo Ridge and the Sobrante Ridge, parts of the Pacific Coast Ranges east of San Francisco Bay.
The creek runs from the southeast to the northwest, originating near Orinda and flowing into San Pablo Bay. It drains one of the largest watersheds in the East Bay, comprising some 41 square miles (110 km2).[4] The creek has 34 named tributaries.[5] The creek was dammed in 1919,[6] forming the San Pablo Reservoir. Briones Reservoir, constructed in 1964, dams the Bear Creek tributary.[5] San Pablo Reservoir essentially splits the creek in two, with about half of the creek and its related feeder creeks on either side of the artificial lake; for much of its course, it runs parallel to Wildcat Creek, which drains from Wildcat Canyon, the next valley to the west.[4][5] The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) gets less than 10% of its water from the creek.[7]
- ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: San Pablo Creek
- ^ Annual Report of the General Land Office. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1879. pp. 194–195.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed March 15, 2011
- ^ a b Our Watershed Archived 2007-07-30 at the Wayback Machine, Spawners, retrieved August 1, 2007
- ^ a b c San Pablo Creek Watershed, Museum of California
- ^ An assessment of stream flow and habitat quality for steelhead trout in San Pablo Creek, Contra Costa County Water Resources Collections and Archives, University of California Water Resources Center, May 1, 2004, retrieved August 1, 2007
- ^ "A History of the Watershed". Spawners. Archived from the original on 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2007-08-01.