La Honda Creek
La Honda Creek is a 7 miles (11 km) long stream on the Pacific slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains and is a tributary of San Gregorio Creek.[3] From its source (37°23′32″N 122°17′30″W) near Bear Gulch Road and Skyline Boulevard (CA 35) in San Mateo County, California, La Honda Creek's water flow south to its confluence with Alpine Creek to form San Gregorio Creek in La Honda, and thence to the Pacific Ocean.
| La Honda Creek Arroyo Hondo[1] | |
|---|---|
 La Honda Creek flows through Play Bowl in La Honda, California | |
  Location of the mouth of La Honda Creek at its confluence with Alpine Creek | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| Region | San Mateo County |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Western slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains |
| • location | near Allen Lookout, San Mateo County, California |
| Source confluence | |
| • location | La Honda, California, San Mateo County, United States of America |
| • coordinates | 37°19′45″N 122°16′58″W |
| • elevation | 320 ft (98 m) |
| Mouth | Pacific Ocean |
• location | San Gregorio, California |
• coordinates | 37°18′36″N 122°16′37″W[2] |
• elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| Basin features | |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Alpine Creek |
| • right | La Honda Creek, Harrington Creek, Bogess Creek, El Corte de Madera Creek, Clear Creek, Coyote Creek |
History
The Spanish historic name for La Honda Creek was Arroyo Hondo, meaning "deep stream".[1][4] The creek was listed as Arroyo Ondo on several diseños on the Mexican land grants and as Arroyo Hondo on the 1856 Rancho Cañada de Raymundo map.
Watershed and Course
The La Honda Creek watershed drains 12.3 square miles (32 km2).[5] A large part of the creek's upper watershed is in La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve.
California State Route 84 (CA 84) follows the valley of the creek from Sky Londa to San Gregorio.
Four named tributaries, Woodhams, Langley, Woodruff and Weeks Creeks, flow into La Honda Creek.[6]
Ecology
The La Honda Creek watershed has been documented as historically supporting a salmonid population, including steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and potentially coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), however sediment eroding into the creek coupled with natural logjams present barriers to fish passage. A 1985 California Department of Fish and Wildlife survey reported steelhead up to 2 miles (3.2 km) upstream of Weeks Creek, the highest named tributary, and reported that La Honda Creek provides good spawning and rearing habitat for steelhead downstream of Woodruff Creek, and resident rainbow trout (the landlocked form of steelhead trout) upstream of Woodruff Creek.[6]
References
- Hoover, Mildred B. (1966). Historic Spots in California, 3rd edition. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: San Gregorio Creek
- U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. The National Map, accessed March 10, 2011
- Gudde, Erwin G. (1998). California place names: the origin and etymology of current geographical names (4th ed., rev. and enl. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 169. ISBN 0520213165.
- William Shay Overton (May 1, 2004). Engineering Geology, Fluvial Geomorphology, and Geology of La Honda Creek in San Mateo County, California (Thesis). California State University, Fresno. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
- McKee, L. J. .; Pearce, S.; Gilbreath, A. N. (2007). Stream Inventory Report for La Honda Creek: Prepared for the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. SFEI Contribution No. 529 (Report). San Francisco Estuary Institute. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
