Bullhead Canyon, is a

canyon A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosion, erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tenden ...

and

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or 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 drain the surrounding drainage ...

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

of the

North Fork Pacheco Creek North Fork Pacheco Creek is a tributary stream of Pacheco Creek, in Santa Clara County, California. Originally it was considered the upper reach of Pacheco Creek. Its source is at an elevation of at on a mountain side in Henry W. Coe State P ...

Santa Clara County, California Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring Sa ...

. Its mouth is on its confluence with North Fork Pacheco Creek at an elevation of . Its source and its upper reach is at within the boundary of

Henry W. Coe State Park Henry W. Coe State Park (often known simply as Henry Coe or Coe Park) is a state park of California, United States, preserving a vast tract of the Diablo Range. The park is located closest to the city of Morgan Hill, and is located in both Sa ...

. It is overlooked to the north by the County Line Road, (formerly the route of

La Vereda del Monte La Vereda del Monte (Spanish language, Spanish for "The Mountain Trail") was a backcountry route through remote regions of the Diablo Range, one of the California Coast Ranges. La Vereda del Monte was the upper part of La Vereda Caballo, (Spanish fo ...

), that runs west to east along the divide of the

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 are ...

and the boundary of Santa Clara and

Stanislaus County, California , image_skyline = , image_caption = Images, from top down, left to right: Modesto Arch, Knights Ferry's General Store, a view of the Tuolumne River from Waterford , image_flag = , i ...

History

Bullhead Canyon was originally called Bull Heads Canyon. It was a refuge for stolen horses taken by the Five Joaquins Gang three miles west of the Estación Romero, a drovers station and an important Gang hideout on La Vereda del Monte, (now

Fifield Ranch Fifield Ranch is a locale within the Diablo Range in Santa Clara County, California. It lies at an elevation of , west of the head of Romero Creek and the Santa Clara County line, about a mile north of Hagerman Peak. It is at the source of a tribu ...

). Bull Heads Canyon was the place stolen horses were kept, in a brush and pole corral, until they could be fed into droves of the Gangs horses, monthly passing along the La Vereda, being taken southward to

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

for sale. Frank F. Latta, Joaquin Murrieta and His Horse Gangs. Bear State Books, Santa Cruz, California. 1980.

References

{{coord, 37, 07, 06, N, 121, 19, 09, W, display=title Valleys of Santa Clara County, California Rivers of Santa Clara County, California Diablo Range La Vereda del Monte