Adobe Creek (near Los Altos)
Encyclopedia
Adobe Creek is a 14.2 miles (22.9 km) northward-flowing stream
originating on Black Mountain
in Santa Clara County, California
, United States
. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills
, Los Altos
, and Palo Alto
, culminating in southwest San Francisco Bay
just west of the levee separating the Palo Alto Flood Basin from the Charleston Slough.
people were the original inhabitants of Adobe Creek. A large shell mound which once had a group of Indian huts was found near Adobe Creek in Palo Alto. Evidence of a smaller settlement within Los Altos was uncovered in 1971, when an Ohlone burial ground with skeletons—one with ceremonial beads—was uncovered by new construction along Adobe Creek near O'Keefe Lane. The site had other artifacts, and an archeological dig was mounted by Foothill College
. Around this same time, an Ohlone basket was discovered buried in the Creek bank further north. The O'Keefe site has a historical plaque marking the historic site.
Adobe Creek was originally called Yeguas Creek. Yeguas is Spanish for "mare", and the Mission Santa Clara
named it that because they built a corral for mares along the creek's banks near the Bay. Juan Prado Mesa renamed it San Antonio Creek when he was granted Rancho San Antonio
in 1839 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado
. During the secularization of the missions in the 1830s, Alvarado parceled out much of their land to prominent Californios via land grants. Mesa was a soldier stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco
who had become alfarez (officer in command) in 1837. He built a large square adobe, which lasted well into the twentieth century as a crumbling ruin long thought of as a fortification. The site today is on a hill on the southeast side of El Monte Avenue near Summerhill Avenue in Los Altos, California
, most of which is located on the territory of the Rancho. The Adobe Creek name appears as early as 1855 on an official surveyor’s map, which lists both the Adobe and San Antonio names for the creek.
The upper creek originates in the historic Rancho La Purisima Concepcion
, which was granted by Governor Alvarado in 1840 to Jose Gorgonio, an Indian living at Mission Santa Clara. Gorgonio moved to the west bank of Adobe Creek near Fremont Avenue in Los Altos Hills. Much of the town of Los Altos Hills, California
was located on this Rancho. In 1844 Rancho La Purisima Concepcion was sold to Juana Briones de Miranda
, whose family members had accompanied both the Gaspar de Portolà
and the Juan Bautista de Anza
Expeditions. Her uniquely constructed wood-framed, rammed-earth and adobe brick house, believed to have been built by American desertee sailors, is located at 4155 Old Adobe Road on the border between Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills, and is marked by a historical marker at the corner of Old Adobe Road and Old Trace Lane. Designated a California State Historical Landmark in 1954, the 160 year old Juana Briones home was scheduled for demolition in 2007 because of damage to it by the Loma Prieta earthquake
in 1989. In 2009, it still stands and has been recently documented with a Historic American Buildings Survey
(HABS).
After 1831, Mexican rancho owners would logically erect their dwellings on or very near creeks. Locally, Juan Prado’s adobe was near Adobe Creek & Juanita Briones’ adobe was near Barron Creek
. Because they were permanent features of the landscape, creeks were often used as Rancho boundaries. This was true locally, where the Mexican diseño show Adobe Creek as the boundary between Rancho San Antonio and Rancho La Purisima Concepcion. When Americans took over in 1850, speculators bought much of this land. Much of it initially became large self-contained ranches---typically running cattle & growing crops like wheat, barley & oats that required little or no irrigation. That changed in a few decades when it was discovered that orchards and vineyards could thrive here. Such agriculture of course used more water. Local land was cut progressively into smaller holdings, until most of it was subdivided as the population increased. This meant more and more wells, including large ones dug along Adobe Creek by early water companies to serve the little town of Los Altos. The water table inevitably shrank as a result, and alarms about this development appeared, at least as early as the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the Los Altos News reported that the water table, which stood at 120 feet in 1898, was now down to 335 feet.
The Trust for Hidden Villa
, is a nonprofit educational organization founded by Frank and Josephine Duveneck, who purchased most of the land comprising the upper Adobe Creek watershed in 1924. They opened Hidden Villa as a gathering place for discussion, reflection, and incubation of social reform. Over the following decades, the Duvenecks also established the first Hostel on the Pacific Coast (1937), the first multiracial summer camp (1945), and Hidden Villa’s Environmental Education Program (1970), all on the creek's upper reaches.
The Juan Prado Mesa Preserve in Los Altos Hills between Dawson Drive and Stonebrook Road, and Hale Creek
and Neary Quarry was created in 1970 and named for the original holder of the land grant.
Adobe Creek Lodge, an English country-style mansion, was built by Consolidated Chemicals vice-president Milton Haas in 1935. It was a destination resort in the 1940s. Bandleaders Jimmy Dorsey
and Harry James
played there.
The founders of Adobe Systems
, a software company, lived next to Adobe Creek in Los Altos
, and named their company after the creek.
The founder of Los Altos, Paul Shoup
picked a premium lot on Adobe Creek for his home from the ranch lands he helped purchase from Sarah Winchester that later became the community of Los Altos. The Paul Shoup House
on Adobe Creek is the first property in Los Altos to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places
.
in Los Altos Hills, California
.
Adobe Creek's upper tributaries are, in order, the Middle Fork Adobe Creek, then immediately the West Fork Adobe Creek (the West Fork is known locally as Letcher Creek). Next the North Fork Adobe Creek (originating on Page Mill Road near "Shotgun Bend" at an elevation over 1500 feet) joins Adobe Creek by the Duveneck's main house at Hidden Villa. The North Fork Adobe Creek is now known locally as Bunny Creek. The upper watershed of Adobe Creek is completely protected by Hidden Villa and the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District.
Below the confluences of the "three forks", Adobe Creek is joined by three seasonal creeks in Los Altos Hills. The first is 1.3 miles (2.1 km) Moody Creek named for George Washington Moody, who built Moody Road in 1867, and whose home was located on Moody Creek (which flows down along Central Avenue and then Moody Court to its confluence with Adobe Creek). Next comes 2 miles (3.2 km) Purisima Creek
(historically known as Purissima Creek and originating between Altamont Road and Dezahara Way and joining Adobe Creek at Deepwater Lane and Bay Tree Lane) and Robleda Creek (along Robleda Road) in Los Altos Hills. Thence, Adobe Creek departs mountainous and hilly terrain and enters the valley floor to descend through Los Altos, Mountain View and Palo Alto. The creek's course runs 11 miles (17.7 km).
From 2003 to 2009, Upper Reach 5 of Adobe Creek (between Foothill Expressway and West Edith Avenue) was restored in an innovative partnership called the Adobe Creek Watershed Group with representatives from the Santa Clara Valley Water District
, local residents and representatives of the City of Los Altos and the Town of Los Altos Hills. The $7.2 million project improved flood conveyance capacity in Reach 5, and also enhanced the creek ecosystem by removing the existing concrete banks and bottom, repairing and stabilizing the eroded banks using minimal hardscape, removing many non-native trees, and establishing a riparian area along 700 feet (213.4 m) of bank using mostly shrubs and trees native to the Adobe Creek watershed, as well as non-native California Redwoods.
Further downstream, the Palo Alto/Los Altos bike path traverses the creek, running along the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct
right of way.
Several sections of Adobe Creek have been re-aligned, including the trapezoidal concrete drainage channel between El Camino Real
and U.S. Highway 101
. Also, in 1956, Pink Horse Ranch developer Wendell Roscoe, re-directed Adobe Creek into a new straight line channel next to Moody Road that he dug to redirect the water along the edge of his subdivision "in order to prevent a repeat of two 100-year floods which left the 40 acre Pink Horse Ranch under 2 feet of water". The original creek channel is now a secondary water "bypass channel" that bears high winter water flows from Adobe Creek and meanders through several properties in the Adobe Lane subdivision before passing under Moody Road and returning to the mainstem at the southeast corner of Foothill College
.
Before passing under Highway 101, Adobe Creek is joined by Barron Creek
just upstream of Highway 101. Barron Creek appears to historically have been a tributary of Matadero Creek
, and was alternatively known as Dry Creek, but was later diverted to Adobe Creek. Barron Creek is 5.8 miles (9.3 km) long, originating in the Los Altos Hills foothills at elevation 360 feet (109.7 m) along La Paloma Road (just north of Alta Tierra Road), then flowing north along La Paloma Road, then it is joined by a Concepcion Road fork at Fremont Road and proceeds along Fremont Road behind Pinewood School, before turning northeasterly along Arastradero Road where it is joined by another minor fork originating in Esther Clark Park. After crossing Foothill Expressway
it is buried in an underground pipe just west of Gunn High School
but sees daylight where the creek crosses Bol Park Bike Path in a small, man-made flood control basin, then at Laguna Avenue again enters an underground pipe running beneath Los Robles Avenue to El Camino Real. Barron Creek has been greatly modified for flood control purposes; the creek bed downstream from El Camino Real is a concrete trapezoidal channel.
After passing under Highway 101, Adobe Creek enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, which is maintained a couple feet below sea level in order to absorb floodwaters from Adobe Creek and Matadero Creek
. By lowering the basin, what was once saltwater marsh is now freshwater marsh, and has had the effect of extending Adobe Creek and Matadero Creek across the basin until they meet at Mayfield Slough at the basin's north end. Mayfield Slough has a tidal gate through which fresh water passes to San Francisco Bay, and some salt water is permitted to return to Mayfield Slough when the tides are higher.
In the 1800s the Baylands marshes ended between Alma and El Camino Real in Palo Alto, which explains why historical maps show area creeks appearing to terminate before they reach the Bay. Duck-hunting blinds were common in the nineteenth century along what is now Middlefield Road.
to remove non-native plants and revitalize the redwood, oak woodland, riparian and grassland ecosystems by installing native plants, improving soil conditions, and creating habitat for wildlife such as bird houses and native bee boxes. The Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) were transplanted by the Halsey family from a location on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains
and replaced the native willows. At Manresa Bridge at the east edge of Redwood Grove one can see the native Red Willow
(Salix laevigata) and Arroyo Willow
(Salix lasiolepis) trees. The historic Halsey House, built in the late 1920s by Theodore and Emma Halsey, is a good example of Spanish Revival architecture. The city designated Halsey House a local landmark in 1981 and until recently it housed the Florence Fava collection of Coastanoan or Ohlone Indian
artifacts from a creekside archeological excavation in Los Altos Hills (now moved to the Los Altos History House). On June 16, 2010 the Los Altos City Council finalized the purchase of 10000 square feet (929 m²) of creekside property from Delbert and Marlene Beumer, who wanted to provide a safe pathway connecting Shoup Park and Redwood Grove.
Steelhead trout
(Oncorhynchus mykiss) occurred historically in Adobe Creek based on a report touting the trout in the Sportsman Gazetteer in 1877. This very early report makes rumors that Adobe Creek's trout were introduced extremely unlikely since the first trout hatcheries in California did not propagate any trout until the 1870s, and much of their production was shipped to hatcheries out of state. In 1898 John Otterbein Snyder
collected steelhead trout specimens in San Antonio Creek (now Adobe Creek). A 1909 land office brochure promoted Los Altos for its "never-failing mountain trout stream, trout caught a few feet from kitchen doors". The reaches upstream from Hidden Villa have been judged excellent trout spawning habitat. Local historian Florence Fava also reported that "the creeks which lace the (Hidden Villa) property and join Adobe Creek were originally full of fish". According to the California Department of Fish and Game
(CDFG), steelhead were caught by local fishermen during 1985, 1986 and 1987 in Mayfield Slough at the confluence of Matadero
and Adobe Creeks. At least six steelhead were noted passing the tidal gates at Mayfield Slough in the Palo Alto Flood Basin in April 1987. There are many formidable obstacles to fish passage on Adobe Creek, including the culverts at the El Camino Real and Interstate 280 overpasses, a drop structure at the Foothill College
bridge and the long concrete trapezoidal channel structure from El Camino Real northward to Highway 101. Additional barriers occur at the O'Keefe Lane and Hidden Villa bridges, and the creek suffers from significant bank erosion, failing channel stabilization structures, and sedimentation. Finally, the trash rack at the tidal gate at the mouth of Mayfield Slough is an intermittent complete barrier to fish passage when it is closed.
Adobe Creek was once a perennial stream
, as steelhead trout young spend their first year in fresh water and obviously cannot survive in streams that run dry seasonally. Historically, lawsuits were filed to prevent diversion of creek water for irrigation because they caused the creek to run "dry certain seasons of the year". A 1919 lawsuit against upstream creek diversion for "alfalfa fields" and "hog wallows" reads: "From time immemorial...the waters of Adobe Creek have flowed into, over upon and through the lands...from Hidden Villa high in the hills, past the wonderful home gardens of Los Altos to the Santa Clara Valley and on to the sea...Charles K. Field mourns the loss of the song of the brook that made his garden with its rockery an enchanted spot; Shoup's children can no longer wade in the stream, because there is no stream to wade in; acres and acres of McCutchen's rhododendrons are now languishing and dying with unsatisfied thirst." This written record confirms oral histories taken by local historian Don McDonald that Adobe Creek used to flow year-round.
Four species of native fishes have been collected from Adobe Creek recently: California roach
, Sacramento sucker
, three-spined stickleback
, and prickly sculpin
. Leidy reported the fish still inhabiting the Adobe Creek's lowest reach in 2007 - native California roach
(Lavinia symmetricus), Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis occidentalis), Three-spined stickleback
(Gasterosteus aculeatus), and non-native Common carp
(Cyprinus carpio), Rainwater killifish
(Lucania parva), and Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). A 2011 fish survey showed only native fish above El Camino Real: the reach above Redwood Grove and the Manresa Lane bridge in Los Altos included California roach, Sacramento sucker and Three-spined stickleback - an assemblage that generally includes steelhead trout in other Bay Area streams. Further upstream, the fish assemblage steadily diminishes due to passage barriers and reduced stream flows from diversions and wells: at Moody Road just above Foothill College, only California roach and Three-spined stickleback were collected, at Rhus Ridge bridge in Los Altos Hills only Three-spined stickleback were collected, and at the Francemont Avenue bridge and along the Adobe Creek Trail at Hidden Villa no fish were found.
s and one operator-controlled sluice
gate that enables tidal flows into the basin in order to improve water quality and for mosquito control. Three agencies oversee the tidegates: Santa Clara Valley Water District
, City of Palo Alto
, and Santa Clara County Vector Control. Because the trash grate and weirs separate the mouth of the flood basin from the San Francisco Bay estuary, large fish cannot swim freely between the Bay and the basin, unless the sluice gate is open. In addition, the tidegates are set to reduce tidal inflows into the basin, so that the basin is mostly freshwater. After a rainstorm the tidegate is kept closed, however this is precisely when steelhead trout in-migrations should occur. In 2002 a small opening was cut in the trash grate on the tidal gate to permit fish passage but it is not known whether trout migrate upstream through it.
From November 16 to 20, 2002, approximately 100 Striped bass
(Morone saxatilis), 5 Bat ray
s (Myliobatis californica) and 2 Leopard shark
s (Triakis semifasciata) were found dead in the Flood Control Basin in both Adobe and Matadero Creeks within one mile of the tidegate. The fishkill was attributed to the first large rainstorm washing a large amount of leaf litter into the basin, leading to eutrophication
and low dissolved oxygen. This is supported by the fact that the dead fish were all large (requiring more oxygen) at 2 to 4 feet long and the mouths and gills of the bass were fully extended open.
, which passes in a loop around both sides of the Palo Alto Flood Basin is known as the Adobe Creek Loop Trail and is easily accessed from a parking lot at the northern terminus of San Antonio Road, just north of U.S. Highway 101. A scenic, easy walking or mountain biking trail, it also provides outstanding birdwatching and in winter is known for its flock of American White Pelican
s (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). The Adobe Creek Loop Trail begins by heading north along the levee between Adobe Creek and the Charleston Slough out to the confluence of Adobe Creek and Matadero Creek. As one heads north on the levee, Charleston Slough is on the right and Adobe Creek is on the left. The Charleston Slough is a rich salt marsh and littoral zone, providing feeding areas for a variety of shorebirds and other estuarine wildlife. At low tide Charleston Slough looks like a salt pond, like the Cargill salt ponds to the east of it, but it is open to tidal flow. Pumps and gates regulate the flow through the slough. Water from the slough gets pumped into Shoreline Lake, which then drains into Permanente Creek
. The slough was named after George Charleston, who came from Scotland in 1852 and purchased 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of marshland in this area. Charleston Road and Charleston Court also bear his name. Continuing north, the wide, curving Loop Trail eventually touches San Francisco Bay itself and curves to the west, crossing over the tidal gate of Mayfield Slough and enters Baylands Nature Preserve. The sailing station boat launching dock is visible on the opposite shore of the channel at the mouth of the former Palo Alto Yacht Harbor. Baylands Nature Preserve surrounds what used to be the Palo Alto Yacht Harbor, now a silted-in mud flat and marsh which provides excellent birding. The Adobe Creek Loop Trail then heads back southwest with Matadero Creek on the left and Byxbee Park (former landfill) and the active Palo Alto garbage dump on the right, eventually connecting to the Bay Trail at East Bayshore Road. Heading east along East Bayshore Road, turn immediately left after crossing over Adobe Creek to return on the Bay Trail to the San Antonio Road parking lot.
Hidden Villa is the starting point for the relatively gentle Adobe Creek Trail, an easy two mile hike upstream along a cool, wooded canyon where the creek still flows year-round. Two routes connect Hidden Villa to the Black Mountain Trial at Ewing Hill at 1200 feet (365.8 m) of elevation, the Hostel Trail (1.3 miles) or the Creek Trail (1 mile) connecting to the Ewing Trail (0.3 miles). The Black Mountain Trail then continues up a strenuous 3 miles (4.8 km) to the 2800 feet (853.4 m) summit of Black Mountain
.
Another "Adobe Creek Trail" is found in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve
, which is an easy to moderate 1.4 mile hike that begins on Montebello Road about 0.1 miles east of Page Mill Road and rejoins Montebello Road after traversing the headwaters of the West Fork Adobe Creek as well as a large meadow with spectacular view of the South Bay.
Stream
A stream is a body of water with a current, confined within a bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as a branch, brook, beck, burn, creek, "crick", gill , kill, lick, rill, river, syke, bayou, rivulet, streamage, wash, run or...
originating on Black Mountain
Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)
Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and west of Cupertino. It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in...
in Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills
Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 7,922 at the 2010 census. Located in Silicon Valley, Los Altos Hills is one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.-Strictly residential:...
, Los Altos
Los Altos, California
Los Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 28,976 according to the 2010 census....
, and Palo Alto
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, culminating in southwest San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
just west of the levee separating the Palo Alto Flood Basin from the Charleston Slough.
History
The OhloneOhlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
people were the original inhabitants of Adobe Creek. A large shell mound which once had a group of Indian huts was found near Adobe Creek in Palo Alto. Evidence of a smaller settlement within Los Altos was uncovered in 1971, when an Ohlone burial ground with skeletons—one with ceremonial beads—was uncovered by new construction along Adobe Creek near O'Keefe Lane. The site had other artifacts, and an archeological dig was mounted by Foothill College
Foothill College
Foothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.-History:...
. Around this same time, an Ohlone basket was discovered buried in the Creek bank further north. The O'Keefe site has a historical plaque marking the historic site.
Adobe Creek was originally called Yeguas Creek. Yeguas is Spanish for "mare", and the Mission Santa Clara
Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Mission Santa Clara de Asís was founded on January 12, 1777 and named for Santa Clara de Asis , the foundress of the order of the Poor Clares. Although ruined and rebuilt six times, the settlement was never abandoned.-History:...
named it that because they built a corral for mares along the creek's banks near the Bay. Juan Prado Mesa renamed it San Antonio Creek when he was granted Rancho San Antonio
Rancho San Antonio (Mesa)
Rancho San Antonio was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Juan Prado Mesa...
in 1839 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Alvarado
Juan Bautista Valentín Alvarado y Vallejo was a Californio and twice Governor of Alta California from 1836 to 1837, and 1838 to 1842.-Early years:...
. During the secularization of the missions in the 1830s, Alvarado parceled out much of their land to prominent Californios via land grants. Mesa was a soldier stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco
Presidio of San Francisco
The Presidio of San Francisco is a park on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
who had become alfarez (officer in command) in 1837. He built a large square adobe, which lasted well into the twentieth century as a crumbling ruin long thought of as a fortification. The site today is on a hill on the southeast side of El Monte Avenue near Summerhill Avenue in Los Altos, California
Los Altos, California
Los Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 28,976 according to the 2010 census....
, most of which is located on the territory of the Rancho. The Adobe Creek name appears as early as 1855 on an official surveyor’s map, which lists both the Adobe and San Antonio names for the creek.
The upper creek originates in the historic Rancho La Purisima Concepcion
Rancho La Purísima Concepción
Rancho La Purísima Concepción was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José Gorgonio and his son José Ramon, Ohlone Indians...
, which was granted by Governor Alvarado in 1840 to Jose Gorgonio, an Indian living at Mission Santa Clara. Gorgonio moved to the west bank of Adobe Creek near Fremont Avenue in Los Altos Hills. Much of the town of Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 7,922 at the 2010 census. Located in Silicon Valley, Los Altos Hills is one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.-Strictly residential:...
was located on this Rancho. In 1844 Rancho La Purisima Concepcion was sold to Juana Briones de Miranda
Juana Briones de Miranda
Juana Briones de Miranda was born near the Santa Cruz Mission, in California. Her parents arrived with the earliest explorations of this then remote fringe of the Spanish empire, and her family members had accompanied both the Gaspar de Portolà and the Juan Bautista de Anza Expeditions...
, whose family members had accompanied both the Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...
and the Juan Bautista de Anza
Juan Bautista de Anza
Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto was a Novo-Spanish explorer and Governor of New Mexico for the Spanish Empire.-Early life:...
Expeditions. Her uniquely constructed wood-framed, rammed-earth and adobe brick house, believed to have been built by American desertee sailors, is located at 4155 Old Adobe Road on the border between Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills, and is marked by a historical marker at the corner of Old Adobe Road and Old Trace Lane. Designated a California State Historical Landmark in 1954, the 160 year old Juana Briones home was scheduled for demolition in 2007 because of damage to it by the Loma Prieta earthquake
Loma Prieta earthquake
The Loma Prieta earthquake, also known as the Quake of '89 and the World Series Earthquake, was a major earthquake that struck the San Francisco Bay Area of California on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. local time...
in 1989. In 2009, it still stands and has been recently documented with a Historic American Buildings Survey
Historic American Buildings Survey
The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...
(HABS).
After 1831, Mexican rancho owners would logically erect their dwellings on or very near creeks. Locally, Juan Prado’s adobe was near Adobe Creek & Juanita Briones’ adobe was near Barron Creek
Barron Creek
Barron Creek is a northward-flowing stream originating in the lower foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Altos Hills in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses northerly through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto, before joining Adobe Creek just south...
. Because they were permanent features of the landscape, creeks were often used as Rancho boundaries. This was true locally, where the Mexican diseño show Adobe Creek as the boundary between Rancho San Antonio and Rancho La Purisima Concepcion. When Americans took over in 1850, speculators bought much of this land. Much of it initially became large self-contained ranches---typically running cattle & growing crops like wheat, barley & oats that required little or no irrigation. That changed in a few decades when it was discovered that orchards and vineyards could thrive here. Such agriculture of course used more water. Local land was cut progressively into smaller holdings, until most of it was subdivided as the population increased. This meant more and more wells, including large ones dug along Adobe Creek by early water companies to serve the little town of Los Altos. The water table inevitably shrank as a result, and alarms about this development appeared, at least as early as the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the Los Altos News reported that the water table, which stood at 120 feet in 1898, was now down to 335 feet.
The Trust for Hidden Villa
Hidden Villa
Hidden Villa is a United States nonprofit educational organization teaching programs on environmental and multicultural awareness. In 1924, Frank and Josephine Duveneck founded this working organic farm and wilderness area on land comprising the upper Adobe Creek watershed on the foothills of Black...
, is a nonprofit educational organization founded by Frank and Josephine Duveneck, who purchased most of the land comprising the upper Adobe Creek watershed in 1924. They opened Hidden Villa as a gathering place for discussion, reflection, and incubation of social reform. Over the following decades, the Duvenecks also established the first Hostel on the Pacific Coast (1937), the first multiracial summer camp (1945), and Hidden Villa’s Environmental Education Program (1970), all on the creek's upper reaches.
The Juan Prado Mesa Preserve in Los Altos Hills between Dawson Drive and Stonebrook Road, and Hale Creek
Hale Creek
Hale Creek is a short stream originating in the foothills of Los Altos Hills, California in Santa Clara County, California, United States. Its source is in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve upstream and east of Neary Quarry...
and Neary Quarry was created in 1970 and named for the original holder of the land grant.
Adobe Creek Lodge, an English country-style mansion, was built by Consolidated Chemicals vice-president Milton Haas in 1935. It was a destination resort in the 1940s. Bandleaders Jimmy Dorsey
Jimmy Dorsey
James "Jimmy" Dorsey was a prominent American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, and big band leader. He was known as "JD"...
and Harry James
Harry James
Henry Haag “Harry” James was a trumpeter who led a jazz swing band during the Big Band Era of the 1930s and 1940s. He was especially known among musicians for his astonishing technical proficiency as well as his superior tone.-Biography:He was born in Albany, Georgia, the son of a bandleader of a...
played there.
The founders of Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems
Adobe Systems Incorporated is an American computer software company founded in 1982 and headquartered in San Jose, California, United States...
, a software company, lived next to Adobe Creek in Los Altos
Los Altos, California
Los Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 28,976 according to the 2010 census....
, and named their company after the creek.
The founder of Los Altos, Paul Shoup
Paul Shoup
Paul Shoup was an American businessman, president and later vice-chairman of the Southern Pacific Railroad in the 1920s and 1930s, a founding board member of the Stanford University School of Business, and founder of the community of Los Altos, California.-Family:He was the third of five children...
picked a premium lot on Adobe Creek for his home from the ranch lands he helped purchase from Sarah Winchester that later became the community of Los Altos. The Paul Shoup House
Paul Shoup House
The Paul Shoup House, also known as the Shoup House, is a historic residence in Los Altos, Santa Clara County, California, United States. It was built as an American Craftsman- and Shingle-style home in 1910 for railroad executive Paul Shoup...
on Adobe Creek is the first property in Los Altos to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Watershed and Course
Adobe Creek drains about 11 square miles (28.5 km²), arising at 2600 feet (792.5 m) on the northeastern flank of Black MountainBlack Mountain (near Los Altos, California)
Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and west of Cupertino. It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in...
in Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills, California
Los Altos Hills is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 7,922 at the 2010 census. Located in Silicon Valley, Los Altos Hills is one of the wealthiest cities in the nation.-Strictly residential:...
.
Adobe Creek's upper tributaries are, in order, the Middle Fork Adobe Creek, then immediately the West Fork Adobe Creek (the West Fork is known locally as Letcher Creek). Next the North Fork Adobe Creek (originating on Page Mill Road near "Shotgun Bend" at an elevation over 1500 feet) joins Adobe Creek by the Duveneck's main house at Hidden Villa. The North Fork Adobe Creek is now known locally as Bunny Creek. The upper watershed of Adobe Creek is completely protected by Hidden Villa and the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District.
Below the confluences of the "three forks", Adobe Creek is joined by three seasonal creeks in Los Altos Hills. The first is 1.3 miles (2.1 km) Moody Creek named for George Washington Moody, who built Moody Road in 1867, and whose home was located on Moody Creek (which flows down along Central Avenue and then Moody Court to its confluence with Adobe Creek). Next comes 2 miles (3.2 km) Purisima Creek
Purisima Creek (Santa Clara County)
Purisima Creek is a eastward-flowing stream originating in Los Altos Hills in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is a tributary of Adobe Creek which it joins just after entering Los Altos.-History:...
(historically known as Purissima Creek and originating between Altamont Road and Dezahara Way and joining Adobe Creek at Deepwater Lane and Bay Tree Lane) and Robleda Creek (along Robleda Road) in Los Altos Hills. Thence, Adobe Creek departs mountainous and hilly terrain and enters the valley floor to descend through Los Altos, Mountain View and Palo Alto. The creek's course runs 11 miles (17.7 km).
From 2003 to 2009, Upper Reach 5 of Adobe Creek (between Foothill Expressway and West Edith Avenue) was restored in an innovative partnership called the Adobe Creek Watershed Group with representatives from the Santa Clara Valley Water District
Santa Clara Valley Water District
The Santa Clara Valley Water District provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection for Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. The district encompasses all of the county’s and serves the area’s 15 cities, 1.7 million residents and more...
, local residents and representatives of the City of Los Altos and the Town of Los Altos Hills. The $7.2 million project improved flood conveyance capacity in Reach 5, and also enhanced the creek ecosystem by removing the existing concrete banks and bottom, repairing and stabilizing the eroded banks using minimal hardscape, removing many non-native trees, and establishing a riparian area along 700 feet (213.4 m) of bank using mostly shrubs and trees native to the Adobe Creek watershed, as well as non-native California Redwoods.
Further downstream, the Palo Alto/Los Altos bike path traverses the creek, running along the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct
Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct
The Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct is a conveyance of Tuolumne River water runoff from federal lands in Yosemite National Park to San Francisco and its client municipalities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area...
right of way.
Several sections of Adobe Creek have been re-aligned, including the trapezoidal concrete drainage channel between El Camino Real
El Camino Real (California)
El Camino Real and sometimes associated with Calle Real usually refers to the 600-mile California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 missions , 4 presidios, and several pueblos, stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcalá in San Diego...
and U.S. Highway 101
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101, is an important north–south U.S. highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States...
. Also, in 1956, Pink Horse Ranch developer Wendell Roscoe, re-directed Adobe Creek into a new straight line channel next to Moody Road that he dug to redirect the water along the edge of his subdivision "in order to prevent a repeat of two 100-year floods which left the 40 acre Pink Horse Ranch under 2 feet of water". The original creek channel is now a secondary water "bypass channel" that bears high winter water flows from Adobe Creek and meanders through several properties in the Adobe Lane subdivision before passing under Moody Road and returning to the mainstem at the southeast corner of Foothill College
Foothill College
Foothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.-History:...
.
Before passing under Highway 101, Adobe Creek is joined by Barron Creek
Barron Creek
Barron Creek is a northward-flowing stream originating in the lower foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Altos Hills in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses northerly through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto, before joining Adobe Creek just south...
just upstream of Highway 101. Barron Creek appears to historically have been a tributary of Matadero Creek
Matadero Creek
Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, then the Mayfield Slough and then southwest San Francisco Bay...
, and was alternatively known as Dry Creek, but was later diverted to Adobe Creek. Barron Creek is 5.8 miles (9.3 km) long, originating in the Los Altos Hills foothills at elevation 360 feet (109.7 m) along La Paloma Road (just north of Alta Tierra Road), then flowing north along La Paloma Road, then it is joined by a Concepcion Road fork at Fremont Road and proceeds along Fremont Road behind Pinewood School, before turning northeasterly along Arastradero Road where it is joined by another minor fork originating in Esther Clark Park. After crossing Foothill Expressway
California County Routes in zone G
There are 21 routes assigned to the "G" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "G" zone includes county highways lying in the counties of Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz.-G1:...
it is buried in an underground pipe just west of Gunn High School
Gunn High School
Henry M. Gunn High School is one of two public high schools in Palo Alto, California. Gunn High School is a four-year high school with a current enrollment of just over 1,900 students. The Class of 1966 was the first class to graduate from Gunn High School. The academic year has two semesters with...
but sees daylight where the creek crosses Bol Park Bike Path in a small, man-made flood control basin, then at Laguna Avenue again enters an underground pipe running beneath Los Robles Avenue to El Camino Real. Barron Creek has been greatly modified for flood control purposes; the creek bed downstream from El Camino Real is a concrete trapezoidal channel.
After passing under Highway 101, Adobe Creek enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, which is maintained a couple feet below sea level in order to absorb floodwaters from Adobe Creek and Matadero Creek
Matadero Creek
Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, then the Mayfield Slough and then southwest San Francisco Bay...
. By lowering the basin, what was once saltwater marsh is now freshwater marsh, and has had the effect of extending Adobe Creek and Matadero Creek across the basin until they meet at Mayfield Slough at the basin's north end. Mayfield Slough has a tidal gate through which fresh water passes to San Francisco Bay, and some salt water is permitted to return to Mayfield Slough when the tides are higher.
In the 1800s the Baylands marshes ended between Alma and El Camino Real in Palo Alto, which explains why historical maps show area creeks appearing to terminate before they reach the Bay. Duck-hunting blinds were common in the nineteenth century along what is now Middlefield Road.
Habitat and wildlife
The creek also flows through Redwood Grove, a 5.9 acres (23,876.5 m²) nature preserve off University Avenue in Los Altos purchased by the city in 1974. In October, 2009 Los Altos contracted with ActerraActerra
Acterra: Action for a Sustainable Earth is a nonprofit environmental education and action organization based in Palo Alto, California.Acterra's annual budget for FY 2007-08 was $918,604. The organization has approximately 1,000 paid members and donors....
to remove non-native plants and revitalize the redwood, oak woodland, riparian and grassland ecosystems by installing native plants, improving soil conditions, and creating habitat for wildlife such as bird houses and native bee boxes. The Coast Redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) were transplanted by the Halsey family from a location on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...
and replaced the native willows. At Manresa Bridge at the east edge of Redwood Grove one can see the native Red Willow
Salix laevigata
Salix laevigata , is a perennial species of willow native to Pacific Coastal California and northern Baja California; it occurs in other southwestern United States locales, most prominently in Arizona and southwest Utah.The Red Willow is a small tree up to 45 feet in height.-Distribution:Most of...
(Salix laevigata) and Arroyo Willow
Salix lasiolepis
Salix lasiolepis is a species of willow native to western and southwestern North America, in the United States from central and southern Washington and southwestern Idaho south to California and Texas, and in Mexico from the Baja California peninsula east to Coahuila and south to Jalisco. The name...
(Salix lasiolepis) trees. The historic Halsey House, built in the late 1920s by Theodore and Emma Halsey, is a good example of Spanish Revival architecture. The city designated Halsey House a local landmark in 1981 and until recently it housed the Florence Fava collection of Coastanoan or Ohlone Indian
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
artifacts from a creekside archeological excavation in Los Altos Hills (now moved to the Los Altos History House). On June 16, 2010 the Los Altos City Council finalized the purchase of 10000 square feet (929 m²) of creekside property from Delbert and Marlene Beumer, who wanted to provide a safe pathway connecting Shoup Park and Redwood Grove.
Steelhead trout
Rainbow trout
The rainbow trout is a species of salmonid native to tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead is a sea run rainbow trout usually returning to freshwater to spawn after 2 to 3 years at sea. In other words, rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species....
(Oncorhynchus mykiss) occurred historically in Adobe Creek based on a report touting the trout in the Sportsman Gazetteer in 1877. This very early report makes rumors that Adobe Creek's trout were introduced extremely unlikely since the first trout hatcheries in California did not propagate any trout until the 1870s, and much of their production was shipped to hatcheries out of state. In 1898 John Otterbein Snyder
John Otterbein Snyder
John Otterbein Snyder was an American zoologist.As a student he met David Starr Jordan who inspired him to enter zoology. He eventually became a zoology instructor at Stanford University and served there from 1899 until 1943. He went on several major collecting expeditions aboard the USS Albatross...
collected steelhead trout specimens in San Antonio Creek (now Adobe Creek). A 1909 land office brochure promoted Los Altos for its "never-failing mountain trout stream, trout caught a few feet from kitchen doors". The reaches upstream from Hidden Villa have been judged excellent trout spawning habitat. Local historian Florence Fava also reported that "the creeks which lace the (Hidden Villa) property and join Adobe Creek were originally full of fish". According to the California Department of Fish and Game
California Department of Fish and Game
The California Department of Fish and Game is a department within the government of California, falling under its parent California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Game manages and protects the state's diverse fish, wildlife, plant resources, and native habitats...
(CDFG), steelhead were caught by local fishermen during 1985, 1986 and 1987 in Mayfield Slough at the confluence of Matadero
Matadero Creek
Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, then the Mayfield Slough and then southwest San Francisco Bay...
and Adobe Creeks. At least six steelhead were noted passing the tidal gates at Mayfield Slough in the Palo Alto Flood Basin in April 1987. There are many formidable obstacles to fish passage on Adobe Creek, including the culverts at the El Camino Real and Interstate 280 overpasses, a drop structure at the Foothill College
Foothill College
Foothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.-History:...
bridge and the long concrete trapezoidal channel structure from El Camino Real northward to Highway 101. Additional barriers occur at the O'Keefe Lane and Hidden Villa bridges, and the creek suffers from significant bank erosion, failing channel stabilization structures, and sedimentation. Finally, the trash rack at the tidal gate at the mouth of Mayfield Slough is an intermittent complete barrier to fish passage when it is closed.
Adobe Creek was once a perennial stream
Perennial stream
A perennial stream or perennial river is a stream or river that has continuous flow in parts of its bed all year round during years of normal rainfall. "Perennial" streams are contrasted with "intermittent" streams which normally cease flowing for weeks or months each year, and with "ephemeral"...
, as steelhead trout young spend their first year in fresh water and obviously cannot survive in streams that run dry seasonally. Historically, lawsuits were filed to prevent diversion of creek water for irrigation because they caused the creek to run "dry certain seasons of the year". A 1919 lawsuit against upstream creek diversion for "alfalfa fields" and "hog wallows" reads: "From time immemorial...the waters of Adobe Creek have flowed into, over upon and through the lands...from Hidden Villa high in the hills, past the wonderful home gardens of Los Altos to the Santa Clara Valley and on to the sea...Charles K. Field mourns the loss of the song of the brook that made his garden with its rockery an enchanted spot; Shoup's children can no longer wade in the stream, because there is no stream to wade in; acres and acres of McCutchen's rhododendrons are now languishing and dying with unsatisfied thirst." This written record confirms oral histories taken by local historian Don McDonald that Adobe Creek used to flow year-round.
Four species of native fishes have been collected from Adobe Creek recently: California roach
California roach
The California roach, Hesperoleucus symmetricus, is a cyprinid fish native to western North America and abundant in the intermittent streams throughout central California. It is the sole member of its genus....
, Sacramento sucker
Catostomidae
Catostomidae is the sucker family of the order Cypriniformes. There are 80 species in this family of freshwater fishes. Catostomidae are found in North America, east central China, and eastern Siberia...
, three-spined stickleback
Three-spined stickleback
The three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is a fish native to much of northern Europe, northern Asia and North America. It has been introduced into parts of southern and central Europe.-Distribution and morphological variation:...
, and prickly sculpin
Cottus (genus)
Cottus is a genus of the sculpin family Cottidae. It is often referred to as the "freshwater sculpins", as the principal genus of sculpins to be found in fresh water.They are mostly small fish, rarely reaching more than 15 cm in length.-Species:...
. Leidy reported the fish still inhabiting the Adobe Creek's lowest reach in 2007 - native California roach
California roach
The California roach, Hesperoleucus symmetricus, is a cyprinid fish native to western North America and abundant in the intermittent streams throughout central California. It is the sole member of its genus....
(Lavinia symmetricus), Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis occidentalis), Three-spined stickleback
Three-spined stickleback
The three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, is a fish native to much of northern Europe, northern Asia and North America. It has been introduced into parts of southern and central Europe.-Distribution and morphological variation:...
(Gasterosteus aculeatus), and non-native Common carp
Common carp
The Common carp is a widespread freshwater fish of eutrophic waters in lakes and large rivers in Europe and Asia. The wild populations are considered vulnerable to extinction, but the species has also been domesticated and introduced into environments worldwide, and is often considered an invasive...
(Cyprinus carpio), Rainwater killifish
Rainwater killifish
The rainwater killifish, is a species of fish in the Fundulidae family. Its range is from Massachusetts in the north to Yucatán in the south.-Synonyms:Cyprinodon parvas...
(Lucania parva), and Western mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis). A 2011 fish survey showed only native fish above El Camino Real: the reach above Redwood Grove and the Manresa Lane bridge in Los Altos included California roach, Sacramento sucker and Three-spined stickleback - an assemblage that generally includes steelhead trout in other Bay Area streams. Further upstream, the fish assemblage steadily diminishes due to passage barriers and reduced stream flows from diversions and wells: at Moody Road just above Foothill College, only California roach and Three-spined stickleback were collected, at Rhus Ridge bridge in Los Altos Hills only Three-spined stickleback were collected, and at the Francemont Avenue bridge and along the Adobe Creek Trail at Hidden Villa no fish were found.
The Palo Alto Flood Basin
The Palo Alto Flood Basin was constructed in 1956 in order to prevent a repeat of the floods of 1955, when a high tide prevented the escape of heavy runoff from Matadero, Adobe, and Barron Creeks into the San Francisco Bay. The trapped runoff waters overflowed upstream creek banks and caused severe flooding in Palo Alto. In order to control the flow of water into the flood basin, a tidegate was placed at the confluence of Adobe Creek, Matadero Creek, and the San Francisco Bay, so that the flood basin could be maintained at approximately 2 feet below sea level, creating room to absorb floodwaters. The tidegate consists of several weirWeir
A weir is a small overflow dam used to alter the flow characteristics of a river or stream. In most cases weirs take the form of a barrier across the river that causes water to pool behind the structure , but allows water to flow over the top...
s and one operator-controlled sluice
Sluice
A sluice is a water channel that is controlled at its head by a gate . For example, a millrace is a sluice that channels water toward a water mill...
gate that enables tidal flows into the basin in order to improve water quality and for mosquito control. Three agencies oversee the tidegates: Santa Clara Valley Water District
Santa Clara Valley Water District
The Santa Clara Valley Water District provides stream stewardship, wholesale water supply and flood protection for Santa Clara County, California, in the southern San Francisco Bay Area. The district encompasses all of the county’s and serves the area’s 15 cities, 1.7 million residents and more...
, City of Palo Alto
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, and Santa Clara County Vector Control. Because the trash grate and weirs separate the mouth of the flood basin from the San Francisco Bay estuary, large fish cannot swim freely between the Bay and the basin, unless the sluice gate is open. In addition, the tidegates are set to reduce tidal inflows into the basin, so that the basin is mostly freshwater. After a rainstorm the tidegate is kept closed, however this is precisely when steelhead trout in-migrations should occur. In 2002 a small opening was cut in the trash grate on the tidal gate to permit fish passage but it is not known whether trout migrate upstream through it.
From November 16 to 20, 2002, approximately 100 Striped bass
Striped bass
The striped bass is the state fish of Maryland, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and the state saltwater fish of New York, Virginia, and New Hampshire...
(Morone saxatilis), 5 Bat ray
Bat ray
The bat ray, Myliobatis californica, is an eagle ray found in muddy or sandy sloughs, estuaries and bays, kelp beds and rocky-bottomed shoreline in the eastern Pacific Ocean, between the Oregon coast and the Gulf of California. It is also found in the area around the Galápagos Islands. The largest...
s (Myliobatis californica) and 2 Leopard shark
Leopard shark
The leopard shark is a species of houndshark, family Triakidae, found along the Pacific coast of North America from the U.S. state of Oregon to Mazatlán in Mexico...
s (Triakis semifasciata) were found dead in the Flood Control Basin in both Adobe and Matadero Creeks within one mile of the tidegate. The fishkill was attributed to the first large rainstorm washing a large amount of leaf litter into the basin, leading to eutrophication
Eutrophication
Eutrophication or more precisely hypertrophication, is the movement of a body of water′s trophic status in the direction of increasing plant biomass, by the addition of artificial or natural substances, such as nitrates and phosphates, through fertilizers or sewage, to an aquatic system...
and low dissolved oxygen. This is supported by the fact that the dead fish were all large (requiring more oxygen) at 2 to 4 feet long and the mouths and gills of the bass were fully extended open.
The Adobe Creek Loop Trail
The San Francisco Bay TrailSan Francisco Bay Trail
The San Francisco Bay Trail is a bicycle and pedestrian trail that will eventually allow continuous travel around the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. As of 2011, approximately 310 miles of trail have been completed...
, which passes in a loop around both sides of the Palo Alto Flood Basin is known as the Adobe Creek Loop Trail and is easily accessed from a parking lot at the northern terminus of San Antonio Road, just north of U.S. Highway 101. A scenic, easy walking or mountain biking trail, it also provides outstanding birdwatching and in winter is known for its flock of American White Pelican
American White Pelican
The American White Pelican is a large aquatic bird from the order Pelecaniformes. It breeds in interior North America, moving south and to the coasts, as far as Central America, in winter....
s (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). The Adobe Creek Loop Trail begins by heading north along the levee between Adobe Creek and the Charleston Slough out to the confluence of Adobe Creek and Matadero Creek. As one heads north on the levee, Charleston Slough is on the right and Adobe Creek is on the left. The Charleston Slough is a rich salt marsh and littoral zone, providing feeding areas for a variety of shorebirds and other estuarine wildlife. At low tide Charleston Slough looks like a salt pond, like the Cargill salt ponds to the east of it, but it is open to tidal flow. Pumps and gates regulate the flow through the slough. Water from the slough gets pumped into Shoreline Lake, which then drains into Permanente Creek
Permanente Creek
Permanente Creek is a stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the namesake for the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization...
. The slough was named after George Charleston, who came from Scotland in 1852 and purchased 160 acre (0.6474976 km²) of marshland in this area. Charleston Road and Charleston Court also bear his name. Continuing north, the wide, curving Loop Trail eventually touches San Francisco Bay itself and curves to the west, crossing over the tidal gate of Mayfield Slough and enters Baylands Nature Preserve. The sailing station boat launching dock is visible on the opposite shore of the channel at the mouth of the former Palo Alto Yacht Harbor. Baylands Nature Preserve surrounds what used to be the Palo Alto Yacht Harbor, now a silted-in mud flat and marsh which provides excellent birding. The Adobe Creek Loop Trail then heads back southwest with Matadero Creek on the left and Byxbee Park (former landfill) and the active Palo Alto garbage dump on the right, eventually connecting to the Bay Trail at East Bayshore Road. Heading east along East Bayshore Road, turn immediately left after crossing over Adobe Creek to return on the Bay Trail to the San Antonio Road parking lot.
Other Adobe Creek Trails
Many locals enjoy the natural setting of a short walk through Redwood Grove, of which portions are on an elevated wooden boardwalk. In 1986 the city of Los Altos was granted an open space easement on the south bank of Adobe Creek and developed a trail from the south end of Redwood Grove to the Manresa Lane Bridge.Hidden Villa is the starting point for the relatively gentle Adobe Creek Trail, an easy two mile hike upstream along a cool, wooded canyon where the creek still flows year-round. Two routes connect Hidden Villa to the Black Mountain Trial at Ewing Hill at 1200 feet (365.8 m) of elevation, the Hostel Trail (1.3 miles) or the Creek Trail (1 mile) connecting to the Ewing Trail (0.3 miles). The Black Mountain Trail then continues up a strenuous 3 miles (4.8 km) to the 2800 feet (853.4 m) summit of Black Mountain
Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)
Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and west of Cupertino. It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in...
.
Another "Adobe Creek Trail" is found in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve
Monte Bello Open Space Preserve
Monte Bello Open Space Preserve is a open space preserve, located near Palo Alto in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, California. The preserve encompasses the upper Stevens Creek watershed in the valley between Monte Bello Ridge and Skyline Ridge...
, which is an easy to moderate 1.4 mile hike that begins on Montebello Road about 0.1 miles east of Page Mill Road and rejoins Montebello Road after traversing the headwaters of the West Fork Adobe Creek as well as a large meadow with spectacular view of the South Bay.
See also
- List of watercourses in the San Francisco Bay Area
- Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and west of Cupertino. It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in...
External links
- Seeds of Change video documentary of Acterra restoration of Redwood Grove on Adobe Creek, by Blake Bowers
- Adobe Creek Watershed maps page at Guide to San Francisco Bay Area Creeks
- Adobe Creek Upper Reach 5 Collaborative Effort (stream restoration)
- GreenTown Los Altos
- Hidden Villa home page
- Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition
- Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative (SCBWMI)
- Lower Peninsula Watershed Stewardship Plans