San Luis Obispo Creek is a 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 San Luis Obispo County, California

San Luis Obispo County, California

San Luis Obispo County is a county located along the Pacific Ocean in the Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census its population was 269,637, up from 246,681 at the 2000 census...

. Its headwaters are in the Santa Lucia Mountains

Santa Lucia Mountains

The Santa Lucia Mountains or Santa Lucia Range is a mountain range in coastal California, running from Monterey southeast for 105 miles to San Luis Obispo. The highest summit is Junipero Serra Peak, in Monterey County...

 near Cuesta Grade, it flows through the city of San Luis Obispo

San Luis Obispo, California

San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...

, and it empties into the Pacific Ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

 just west of Avila Beach

Avila Beach

Avila Beach , pronounced AH-vuh-luh or spanish pronunciation as AH-vee-lah, is a census-designated place in San Luis Obispo County, California, USA and located about 160 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and about 200 miles south of San Francisco. The ZIP Code is 93424. The community is inside area...

. The creek is 15 miles (24.1 km) long and drains 84 square miles (217.6 km²). Its eleven tributaries

Tributary

A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...

 are Brizziolari, Stenner, Reservoir Canyon, Prefumo, Castro, Davenport, Froom, See Canyon and East Fork San Luis Obispo Creeks.

Various barriers to fish migration

Fish migration

Many types of fish migrate on a regular basis, on time scales ranging from daily to annually or longer, and over distances ranging from a few metres to thousands of kilometres...

 have been created on the creek and its tributaries since the city was founded. Stage Coach Dam on the upper reaches of the creek was removed in 2002. It had been built in the early 1900s to create a water supply reservoir, but was filled in with sediment

Sediment

Sediment is naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of fluids such as wind, water, or ice, and/or by the force of gravity acting on the particle itself....

. Other barriers have been removed as well, often by creating noches in the middle to concentrate low flows or adding rock weir

Weir

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 to back up the water over an obstacle or provide a more gradual change in elevation.