page_title: Bear Creek (San Francisquito Creek tributary)
section_title: Watershed
hierarchical_section_title: Bear Creek (San Francisquito Creek tributary) / Watershed
caption_attribution_description: English: Dry Creek, a tributary of Bear Creek that flows along the west side of Cañada Road and by Buck's of Woodside, exiting under Mountain Home Road close to Woodside Road (California state route 84)
context_page_description: Bear Creek, or Bear Gulch Creek, is a 6.6-mile-long southeastward-flowing stream originating north of the summit of Sierra Morena in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the community of Kings Mountain in San Mateo County, California, United States. It flows through the town of Woodside. Bear Creek and Corte Madera Creek join to become San Francisquito Creek in the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve at Stanford University.
context_section_description: The Bear Creek mainstem is formed by the confluence of Bear Gulch Creek and West Union Creek near the intersection of Kings Mountain Road and Highway 84 in Woodside, California. The candelabra pattern of the numerous creeks and gulches that culminate in Bear Creek formed due to the motion of the San Andreas fault. West Union Creek originates in the Phleger Estate, now part of the San Francisco State Fish and Game Refuge. The other Bear Creek tributaries flow through numerous additional public lands including Huddart County Park, Teague Hill Regional Open Space Preserve, and the northern edge of Wunderlich County Park. The Bear Creek watershed drains 13 square miles (34 km²).
  Water diverted from the creek at Woodside Diversion Dam and Lower Bear Gulch Creek Diversion Dam is stored in Bear Gulch Reservoir and provides as much about 20% of Woodside's drinking water, rising to 50% in the winter months, with the balance coming from Hetch Hetchy. It also supplies water to residents of Menlo Park, Atherton, and Portola Valley. The Woodside Diversion Damwas built around 1840 as a grist mill and is located within the 1,200-plus acre California Water Service Company watershed, and there is a second diversion taken from the lower portion of Bear Gulch Creek near Manzanita Road in Woodside.The California Water Service purchased the Bear Gulch Water Co. from the University of California in 1936. Precessor water companies include Arroyo de La Presa (1863), Corte Madera Water Co. (1863-1873), Menlo Park Water Company (1873-1889) and Bear Gulch Water Company (1889-1936).
caption: The tributary Dry Creek flows along the west side of Cañada Road and by Buck's of Woodside, before crossing Woodside Road, then under Mountain Home Road (this view) before its confluence with the main stem.
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