Arroyo Viejo is a westward flowing creek that begins in the

Oakland Hills Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

Alameda County Alameda County ( ) is a List of counties in California, county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and List ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and joins Lion Creek just before entering

San Leandro Bay San Leandro Bay is a body of water in the San Francisco Bay. It is connected to the Oakland Estuary today, but was originally separated by land which formerly connected Alameda with Oakland. It is located along the east of the Oakland Internat ...

, a part of eastern

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

History

Arroyo Viejo means Old Creek in Spanish.

Hiking

There is a hiking trail offering visibility into the eastern San Leandro Bay marshlands between East Creek and

Damon Marsh The Damon Marsh is a tidal wetland at the northern edge of San Leandro Bay in Oakland, California, USA. There is a paved long shoreline trail along the waterfront to allow visual access to the San Leandro Bay and through the marsh itself. One en ...

at the mouth of Lion Creek.

Watershed and course

The Arroyo Viejo Creek Watershed drains beginning on the western slope of the Oakland hills and running west through the northern boundary of Knowland Park then urban Oakland before merging with Lion Creek and entering

, and finally,

. Rifle Range Creek begins in the Leona Canyon Regional Open Space park, then joins the Arroyo Melrose Highlands Branch, which is also joined by Country Club Creek (which flows along the northern boundary of Sequoyah Country Club). The Arroyo Melrose Highlands Branch joins Arroyo Viejo at the

MacArthur Freeway MacArthur or Macarthur may refer to: Places * Macarthur, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra, Australia * Macarthur, New South Wales, a region of Metropolitan Sydney, Australia ** Division of Macarthur ** Macarthur railway station * ...

. Below the freeway, the creek is joined by the 73rd Avenue Branch (which is in an underground pipe), and continues in a series of engineered channels and underground culverts to Lion Creek (also known as Arroyo de Leona) and crosses Interstate 880 to San Leandro Bay within the larger San Francisco Bay.

Ecology

The upper tributaries of Arroyo Viejo lie in what was historically a belt of

coast redwood ''Sequoia sempervirens'' ()''Sunset Western Garden Book,'' 1995:606–607 is the sole living species of the genus '' Sequoia'' in the cypress family Cupressaceae (formerly treated in Taxodiaceae). Common names include coast redwood, coastal ...

(''Sequoia sempervirens'') extending from the

Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve is a regional park located in Oakland, California that is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system. It is located off Keller Avenue near Oak Knoll Naval Hospital and it extends to Merritt College M ...

up to

Redwood Regional Park Dr. Aurelia Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park (formerly known as Redwood Regional Park) is a part of the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located in the hills east of Oakland. The park contains the largest ...

and east to

Moraga Moraga is a List of municipalities in California, town in Contra Costa County, California, Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family. As ...

References

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External links