Lynch Creek is a 7.1 miles (11.4 km) stream

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...

 in Sonoma County, California

Sonoma County, California

Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 which discharges into the Petaluma River

Petaluma River

The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough near its mouth. It springs from farmlands southwest of Cotati and flows generally southward through Petaluma's old town and of tidal marshes to end in northwest San Pablo Bay.-History:The word...

.

Course

Lynch Creek rises on the west flank of Sonoma Mountain

Sonoma Mountain

Sonoma Mountain is a prominent landform within the Sonoma Mountains of southern Sonoma County, California. At elevation of , Sonoma Mountain offers expansive views of the Pacific Ocean to the west and the Sonoma Valley to the east...

 and descends initially to the west. It flows under Sonoma Mountain Road, then turns southward and roughly parallels Lynch Road for about a mile (2 km). Just north of Adobe Road, it crosses under Sonoma Mountain Road again. After crossing Adobe Road, it flows through Rooster Run Golf Club and enters suburban Petaluma

Petaluma, California

Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, in the United States. In the 2010 Census the population was 57,941.Located in Petaluma is the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, a National Historic Landmark. It was built beginning in 1836 by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, then Commandant of the San...

, where it flows southwestward. It crosses Sonoma Mountain Parkway and Maria Drive and follows the western edge of Lucchesi Park to North McDowell Boulevard. From the south side of the Boulevard, it continues southward, passing under U.S. 101 at milepost 5.19 to feed into the Petaluma River near Jess Avenue.

Bridges

Lynch Creek is spanned by several bridges, including:

• at U.S. Route 101, a pair of 79 feet (24 m) concrete continuous slabs built in 1955,
• at Sonoma Mountain Road 0.35 mile (0.563269 km) northwest of Adobe Road, a 62 feet (19 m) prestressed concrete tee beam built in 1984, and
• at Adobe Road 3.2 miles (5 km) south of Petaluma Hill Road, a 60 feet (18 m) steel bridge built in 1950 and reconstructed in 1963.