Alamitos Creek or Los Alamitos Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 15, 2011 creek in San Jose,

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, which becomes the Guadalupe River when it exits Lake Almaden and joins Guadalupe Creek. Los Alamitos Creek is located in

Almaden Valley , other_name= , native_name= es, Almadén , nickname= , settlement_type= Neighborhood of San Jose , total_type= , motto= , image_skyline = , flag_size= , image_sea= , seal_size= , image_shield= , shield_size= , image_blank_emblem= , ...

and originates from the Los Capitancillos Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near

New Almaden , settlement_type = Neighborhood of San Jose , nickname = , motto = , image_skyline = , image_flag = , image_seal = , image_map = , mapsize = , map_caption = , image_map1 = , mapsize1 = , map_caption1 = , pushpin_map = United States Sa ...

. This creek flows through the Valley's Guadalupe Watershed, which is owned by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The creek flows in a generally northwesterly direction after rounding the Los Capitancillos Ridge and the town of New Almaden, in the southwest corner, before ambling along the Santa Teresa Hills on northeast side of the Almaden Valley. Its environment has some relatively undisturbed areas and considerable lengths of suburban residential character. Originally called ''Arroyo de los Alamitos'', the creek's name is derived from "little poplar", "alamo" being the Spanish word for "poplar" or "cottonwood".

History

The Alamitos Creek banks were inhabited by Native American

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

s thousands of years ago and up until the time of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

exploration Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

. Evidence of middens and traces of that hunter-gatherer civilization has been recorded from archeological excavations and surface finds. From the mid-19th century until the 1970s, operation of the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines discharged high levels of mercury into the creek near its headwaters and the remaining piles of exposed

mine tailings In mining, tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the uneconomic fraction (gangue) of an ore. Tailings are different to overburden, which is the waste rock or other material that overl ...

still contaminate the creek beyond natural levels. Warning signs to not eat fish caught in the Alamitos Creek still run the length of its course. In the 1940s and 1950s, rapid residential development expanded into this portion of the Almaden Valley including building which encroached into the

100-year flood A 100-year flood is a flood event that has a 1 in 100 chance (1% probability) of being equaled or exceeded in any given year. The 100-year flood is also referred to as the 1% flood, since its annual exceedance probability is 1%.Holmes, R.R., Jr. ...

plain. The Santa Clara Valley Water District began studying this watershed with emphasis upon

flood control Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...

functions, and made some minor streambed alterations such as energy dissipators. In 1976 the District developed a comprehensive flood control plan and retained Earth Metrics Inc. to prepare an independent Environmental Impact Report. The resulting study developed the first comprehensive data base of

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...

and

cultural resources A heritage asset is an item that has value because of its contribution to a nation’s society, knowledge and/or culture. They are usually physical assets, but some countries also use the term in relation to intangible social and spiritual inheritan ...

information for Alamitos Creek. In 1989 the city of San Jose undertook an analysis to create a creekside trail from

Almaden Quicksilver County Park Almaden Quicksilver County Park is a 4,163 acres (17 km²) park that includes the grounds of former mercury ("quicksilver") mines adjacent to south San Jose, California, USA. The park's elevation varies greatly: the most used entrance ...

to a location along Alamitos Creek about .6 mile below the confluence with Arroyo Calero. A bench with painted tiles by the Los Alamitos Creek

One of the footbridges on the Los Alamitos Creek Trail

Watershed

Alamitos Creek drains an area of approximately , and begins at the base of Almaden Reservoir, although the reservoir is fed by Herbert Creek whose source is just south of the peak of

Mount Umunhum Mount Umunhum (Ohlone for "Resting Place of the Hummingbird") is a peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, located in Santa Clara County, California. It is the fourth-highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, after Loma Prieta, Crystal Peak, and Mt ...

. In addition to Herbert Creek, the reservoir has several minor tributaries including Barret Creek, Jacques Gulch, and Larrabee Creek. Barret Creek begins in Barret Canyon draining the north slope of Loma Prieta, the tallest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and joins Herbert Creek from the south just before joining Almaden Reservoir. Barret Creek gained significant protection in 2018 when the

Peninsula Open Space Trust The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is a nonprofit land trust headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Mission and Work POST mission is to protect open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all. The organization has bee ...

, the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority and the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District purchased 500 acres of land to preserve as open space. “Rainbow trout in Barret Creek were nceso plentiful that fishermen used to catch them by the hundreds,” said Vice President Marti Tedesco of the Peninsula Open Space Trust. Downstream of Almaden Reservoir, Alamitos Creek has another major tributary, Arroyo Calero. Arroyo Calero's upstream reach was dammed to form

Calero Reservoir Calero Reservoir, also called Calero Lake, is a reservoir in San Jose, California, located in the Calero neighborhood of Almaden Valley in South San Jose. It is the site of Calero County Park, which also includes a large area covering the lake a ...

. Alamitos Creek feeds into Lake Almaden (not to be confused with Almaden Reservoir). Lake Almaden was formed by a private gravel quarry operation which changed a meadow once grazed by dairy cows into the lake. Mercury and Canada goose excrement pollute the lake so that it remains closed to the public. Lake Almaden is a great impediment to native

steelhead trout Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout or redband trout (O. m. gairdneri). Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and ...

(''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') migration, as it is home to many non-native predatory fish, such as

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

(''Micropterus salmoides''). It also serves as a heat sink elevating river water temperatures downstream and creating a large warm lake area difficult for trout to migrate through. Santa Clara Valley Water District is in the process of separating the creek from the lake to address these problems, expecting to be done in 2022. After it exits the lake, Alamitos Creek is joined by Guadalupe Creek. This confluence is the origin of the Guadalupe River mainstem, just west of Almaden Expressway and north of Coleman Road.

Ecology

Alamitos Creek once supported runs of steelhead. In July and August 1997, the Santa Clara Valley Water District electrofished sites near Alamitos Creek's confluence with Golf Creek near the McKean Road crossing. In the downstream rocky streambed reaches of the creek there are a variety of birds commonly observed including mallard, black phoebe,

common merganser The common merganser (North American) or goosander (Eurasian) (''Mergus merganser'') is a large seaduck of rivers and lakes in forested areas of Europe, Asia, and North America. The common merganser eats mainly fish. It nests in holes in trees. ...

red-shouldered hawk The red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') is a medium-sized buteo. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of its ...

, snowy egret, belted kingfisher, great blue heron and black-crowned night-heron. There are a few mammals on the lower reaches such as

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...

. Vegetation includes upland tree

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

such as

coast live oak ''Quercus agrifolia'', the California live oak, or coast live oak, is a highly variable, often evergreen oak tree, a type of live oak, native to the California Floristic Province. It may be shrubby, depending on age and growing location, but is ...

and

California bay laurel ''Umbellularia californica'' is a large hardwood tree native to coastal forests and the Sierra foothills of California, and to coastal forests extending into Oregon. It is endemic to the California Floristic Province. It is the sole species in th ...

; understory growth such as

coyote brush ''Baccharis pilularis'', called coyote brush (or bush), chaparral broom, and bush baccharis, is a shrub in the family Asteraceae native to California, Oregon, Washington, and Baja California. There are reports of isolated populations in New Mexi ...

toyon ''Heteromeles arbutifolia'' (; more commonly by Californian botanists), commonly known as toyon, is a common perennial shrub native to extreme southwest Oregon, California, and the Baja California Peninsula. It is the sole species in the genus ...

and

poison oak Poison oak refers to two plant species in the genus ''Toxicodendron,'' both of which can cause skin irritation: *''Toxicodendron diversilobum'' or Western poison oak, found in western North America *''Toxicodendron pubescens ''Toxicodendron pub ...

; and riparian vegetation such as red

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist so ...

and wild

blackberry The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...

. In the extreme downstream reaches rufous-crowned sparrow,

California thrasher The California thrasher (''Toxostoma redivivum'') is a large member of family Mimidae found primarily in chaparral habitat in California and Baja California. It is the only species of ''Toxostoma'' throughout most of its range.Cody, M. L. (202 ...

and

American kestrel The American kestrel (''Falco sparverius''), also called the sparrow hawk, is the smallest and most common falcon in North America. It has a roughly two-to-one range in size over subspecies and sex, varying in size from about the weight of ...

can be observed on chaparral slopes. In the

oak woodland An oak woodland is a plant community with a tree canopy dominated by oaks (''Quercus spp.''). In terms of canopy closure, oak woodlands are intermediate between oak savanna, which is more open, and oak forest, which is more closed. Although the ...

s along the creek,

acorn woodpecker The acorn woodpecker (''Melanerpes formicivorus'') is a medium-sized woodpecker, long, with an average weight of . Taxonomy The acorn woodpecker was formally described in 1827 by the English naturalist William John Swainson under the binomi ...

California quail The California quail (''Callipepla californica''), also known as the California valley quail or Valley quail, is a small ground-dwelling bird in the New World quail family. These birds have a curving crest or '' plume'', made of six feathers, tha ...

, Anna's hummingbird, scrub jay,

oak titmouse The oak titmouse (''Baeolophus inornatus'') is a passerine bird in the tit family Paridae. The American Ornithologists' Union split the plain titmouse into the oak titmouse and the juniper titmouse in 1996, due to distinct differences in song, ...

bushtit The bushtits or long-tailed tits, are a family, Aegithalidae, of small passerine birds with long tails, compared to their size. The family contains 13 species in three genera, all but one of which are found in Eurasia. Bushtits are active birds, ...

Bewick's wren The Bewick's wren (''Thryomanes bewickii'') is a wren native to North America. It is the only species placed in the genus ''Thryomanes''. At about long, it is grey-brown above, white below, with a long white eyebrow. While similar in appearan ...

, and

spotted towhee The spotted towhee (''Pipilo maculatus'') is a large New World sparrow. The taxonomy of the towhees has been debated in recent decades, and until 1995 this bird and the eastern towhee were considered a single species, the rufous-sided towhee. A ...

can be found. The

California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, commonly referred to as OEHHA (pronounced oh-EEE-ha), is a specialized department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency ( CalEPA) with responsibility for evaluatin ...

has issued a "Do Not Eat" for any fish caught in Alamitos Creek due to elevated mercury.

Los Alamitos Creek Trail

The Los Alamitos Creek Trail or Alamitos Creek Trail is a paved, pedestrian and bicycle trail that runs along Alamitos Creek, from Harry Road (south) to Lake Almaden Park (north). As the trail crosses beneath the Coleman Road bridge, it meets the confluence of Guadalupe Creek and becomes the Guadalupe River Trail. A paved trail system which continues along the Guadalupe River extending northward to Chynoweth Avenue. As an alternative to walking under a narrow crawl corridor below the Almaden Expressway bridge, hikers can continue by using sidewalks and the signalized intersection of Coleman Road/Almaden Expressway, trail users can follow the Guadalulpe Creek Trail westward to Meridian Avenue (unpaved, interim gravel surface).

References

External links