page_title: Adobe Creek (Santa Clara County)
section_title: Watershed and course
hierarchical_section_title: Adobe Creek (Santa Clara County) / Watershed and course
caption_attribution_description: English: Adobe Creek (near Los Altos, California). Loss of riparian vegetation, perhaps from grazing, leads to increase in stream velocity and erosion and channel incision downstream
context_page_description: Adobe Creek is a 14.2-mile-long northward-flowing stream originating on Black Mountain in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It courses through the cities of Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, and Palo Alto. Historically, Adobe Creek was perennial and hosted runs of steelhead trout entering from southwestern San Francisco Bay.
context_section_description: Adobe Creek drains about 11 square miles (28 km²), arising at 2,600 feet (790 m) on the northeastern flank of Black Mountain in Los Altos Hills, California. Adobe Creek was once a perennial stream, as evidenced by historical presence of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Trout young spend their first year in fresh water and obviously cannot survive in streams that run dry seasonally. Historically, lawsuits were filed to prevent diversion of creek water for irrigation because they caused the creek to run "dry certain seasons of the year". A 1919 lawsuit against upstream creek diversion for "alfalfa fields" and "hog wallows" reads: "From time immemorial...the waters of Adobe Creek have flowed into, over upon and through the lands...from Hidden Villa high in the hills, past the wonderful home gardens of Los Altos to the Santa Clara Valley and on to the sea...Charles K. Field mourns the loss of the song of the brook that made his garden with its rockery an enchanted spot; Shoup's children can no longer wade in the stream, because there is no stream to wade in; acres and acres of McCutchen's rhododendrons are now languishing and dying with unsatisfied thirst." This written record confirms oral histories taken by local historian Don McDonald that Adobe Creek used to flow year-round. It is also consistent with Eleanor Cranston Fowle Cameron's (the sister of Senator Alan Cranston was born in 1909 and they lived on Cypress Court, north of West Edith Avenue in Los Altos Hills) account that in her youth the creek was perennial and that her "father fished the steelhead that ran up from the Bay to the pool below the waterfall". On March 1, 1973 the State Water Resources Board (SWRB is now the California Department of Water Resources) granted water rights to the Purissima Hills Water District to withdraw 2.0 cubic feet per second (cfs) from the perennial reach where the SWRB had documented flows of 3.0 cfs on August 12, 1970, despite protestations by Robert and Mary Stutz who had rights to withdraw 0.005 cfs at Elena and Moody Roads, and Roy and Penny Lave who had rights to withdraw 0.008 cfs near Manresa Way and University Avenue. Today the creek's perennial sections are above Hidden Villa and between Foothill Expressway and Interstate 280 above the Manresa Way bridge.
  Adobe Creek's upper tributaries are, in order, the Middle Fork Adobe Creek, then immediately the West Fork Adobe Creek (the West Fork is known locally as Letcher Creek). Next the North Fork Adobe Creek (originating on Page Mill Road near "Shotgun Bend" at an elevation over 1500 feet) joins Adobe Creek by the Duveneck's main house at Hidden Villa. The North Fork Adobe Creek is also known locally as Bunny Creek. The upper watershed of Adobe Creek is completely protected by Hidden Villa and the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District.
  Below the confluences of the "three forks", Adobe Creek is joined by three seasonal creeks in Los Altos Hills. The first is 1.3-mile-long (2.1 km) Moody Creek (known locally as Silver Creek) and named for George Washington Moody (1824–1909), a farmer who lived along the stream. His home was located on Moody Creek (which flows down along Central Drive and then Moody Court to its confluence with Adobe Creek). Moody built Moody Road in 1867.  The next Adobe Creek tributary is 2.0-mile-long (3.2 km) Purisima Creek (historically known as Purissima Creek and originating between Altamont Road and Dezahara Way and joining Adobe Creek at Deepwater Lane and Bay Tree Lane) and Robleda Creek (along Robleda Road) in Los Altos Hills. Thence, Adobe Creek departs mountainous and hilly terrain and enters the valley floor to descend through Los Altos, Mountain View, and Palo Alto.  The creek's course runs 11 miles (18 km).
  From 2003 to 2009, Upper Reach 5 of Adobe Creek (between Foothill Expressway and West Edith Avenue) was restored in an innovative partnership called the Adobe Creek Watershed Group with representatives from the Santa Clara Valley Water District, local residents and representatives of the City of Los Altos and the Town of Los Altos Hi
caption: Loss of streamside (riparian) vegetation increases stream velocity, causing downstream erosion and channel incision (dark gully behind tree) at Hidden Villa 2010
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