page_title: Black Creek (Arizona)
section_title: Access routes and townsites
hierarchical_section_title: Black Creek (Arizona) / Access routes and townsites
caption_attribution_description: English: Black Creek at West Fork confluence. Black Creek enters from Oak Spring Canyon, right center, and exits at lower left. The West Fork joins from above and right, with a minor tributary from Pine Springs, upper left.
context_page_description: Black Creek of Arizona is a 55-mi long north tributary of the Puerco River, in northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico.
  The Black Creek flows south along an east and southeast perimeter section of the Defiance Plateau; Red Lake, 7,150 feet, lies in Red Valley near the origin of Black Creek, and other watercourses meeting at Red Lake. Red Lake is located at the north of the river valley, Black Creek Valley, which extends south to Window Rock, Arizona.
  Fort Defiance, Arizona, is at a northwest section of Black Creek. Other sources of the creek are from the east in New Mexico. The Chuska Mountains, of Arizona and New Mexico, trend southeasterly, and form the east border of Black Creek Valley; an extension south from the Chuskas, the Manuelito Plateau, forms the east border, from Red Lake south, to just east of Fort Defiance.
  Black Creek continues south, and south of Window Rock the Black Creek Valley ends south of St. Michaels, Arizona. Approximately 6-mi south of St. Michaels, the smaller Oak Springs Valley begins. Black Creek exits the valley southwest, through a 4-mi long canyon to enter a due-south flowing stretch to Houck, Arizona, and its confluence with the Puerco River.
context_section_description: List of townsites/roadways/etc. (south of Window Rock)
  
  
   
  West
  (Window Rock, Arizona)
  Arizona State Route 264
  St. Michaels, Arizona
  –
  –
  IR-123
  Hunters Point, Arizona
  –
  Oak Springs, Arizona
  IR-28 & IR-124
  –
  (Black Creek exits southwesterly)
  South
   
  East
  Window Rock, Arizona
  Tse Bonito, New Mexico (on NM-264)
  AZ-264 & New Mexico State Road 264
  –
  IR-123
  –
  –
  –
  IR-124
  –
   
  The townsites north of Window Rock are Fort Defiance and Navajo. Sawmill, Arizona, on Indian Route 7 (IR-7) from Fort Defiance, lies northwest on the Defiance Plateau, which formerly had an operational sawmill industry. The Black Creek and rivercourse Black Creek Valley is traversed by the north–south  IR-12. South of Oak Springs, Arizona, IR-12 traverses south-southeasterly out of Oak Springs Valley to Interstate 40, about 8-mi distant.
  At Window Rock, IR-12 traverses due-north at the east bank of Black Creek. At Fort Defiance, (west side of river, 5-mi north), IR-12 enters New Mexico to reach Navajo, New Mexico, at the southeast corner of Red Lake. IR-12 becomes New Mexico State Road 134 and turns northeast to meet a north-traversing stretch of U.S. Route 491 in New Mexico.
caption: Black Creek enters from Oak Spring Canyon, right center, and exits at lower left toward its confluence with the Puerco River at Houck, Arizona. The West Fork Black Creek joins from above and right, with a minor tributary from Pine Springs, Arizona, upper left.
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