The Estrella River is a
[U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data]
The National Map
, accessed March 15, 2011 tributary
A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...
river
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...
in eastern
San Luis Obispo County, California
San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a County (United States), county on the Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 282,424. The county seat is San Luis Obispo ...
. The river forms at the confluence of
Cholame Creek,
from the north, and
San Juan Creek
San Juan Creek, also called the San Juan River, is a stream in Orange County, California, Orange and Riverside County, California, Riverside Counties, draining a watershed of .7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map, U.S. Geological Survey, San Juan Capistr ...
,
from the south, near the town of
Shandon. From there it flows west-northwest to its confluence with the
Salinas River, of which it is a tributary, 8 miles (12.8 km) north of
Paso Robles. Cholame Creek has its headwaters on the southwest side of
Middle Mountain and its tributary,
Little Cholame Creek, begins on the northeast side.
The creek drains the
Cholame Valley, which is bordered by
Diablo Range
The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...
on the east and
Cholame Hills, a northern extension of the
Temblor Range
The Temblor Range is a mountain range within the California Coast Ranges, at the southwestern extremity of the San Joaquin Valley in California in the United States. It runs in a northwest-southeasterly direction along the borders of Kern County a ...
, on the west.
[ The average ]precipitation
In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...
in the area ranges from , increasing northward.
A portion of the Temblor Range drains into San Juan Creek, but the nearby Carrizo Plain
The Carrizo Plain ( Obispeño: ''tšɨłkukunɨtš'', "Place of the rabbits") is a large enclosed grassland plain, approximately long and up to across, in southeastern San Luis Obispo County, California, United States, about northwest of Lo ...
has been cut off from the watershed
Watershed may refer to:
Hydrology
* Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins
* Drainage basin, an area of land where surface water converges (North American usage)
Music
* Watershed Music Festival, an annual country ...
by tectonic
Tectonics ( via Latin ) are the processes that result in the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. The field of ''planetary tectonics'' extends the concept to other planets and moons.
These processes ...
action. The creek also drains part of the La Panza Range in the southwest of the watershed. The vast majority of the land in the watershed is rangeland, but there is also some cropland, pastureland and developed areas.[
]
References
Bibliography
San Luis Obispo County WaterUnited States Department of Agriculture - Carrizo Plain
{{Salinas River
Rivers of San Luis Obispo County, California
Salinas River (California)
Rivers of Southern California