The Estrella River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
, accessed March 15, 2011

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 ...

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

in eastern

San Luis Obispo County, California San Luis Obispo County (), officially the County of San Luis Obispo, is a County (United States), county on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 282, ...

. The river forms at the confluence of

Cholame Creek Cholame (; Salinan: ''Tco'alam'') is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It sits within a mile of the San Andreas Fault at an elevation of above sea level and is located at . Cholame is reached via ...

, from the north, and

San Juan Creek San Juan Creek, also called the San Juan River, is a long stream in Orange and Riverside Counties, draining a watershed of .7.5 Minute Quadrangle Map, U.S. Geological Survey, San Juan Capistrano, 1968, photorevised 1981 Its mainstem begins in ...

, from the south, near the town of Shandon. From there it flows west-northwest to its confluence with the Salinas River, of which it is a tributary, 8 miles (12.8 km) north of

Paso Robles Paso Robles ( ), officially El Paso de Robles (Spanish for "The Pass of Oaks"), is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Salinas River approximately north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its hot ...

. Cholame Creek has its headwaters on the southwest side of

Middle Mountain Middle Mountain is a mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the west of Lake Tahoe in the Desolation Wilderness The Desolation Wilderness is a federally protected wilderness area in the Eldorado National Forest and Lake Tahoe Basi ...

and its tributary,

Little Cholame Creek Little Cholame Creek is a perennial stream in southeastern Monterey County, California, United States. The headwaters rise from an unnamed peak southwest of Reason Mountain, in the southern part of the Diablo Range. From there, the creek flows ...

, begins on the northeast side. The creek drains the

Cholame Valley Cholame (; Salinan: ''Tco'alam'') is an unincorporated community in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. It sits within a mile of the San Andreas Fault at an elevation of above sea level and is located at . Cholame is reached via ...

, which is bordered by

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 ...

on the east and

Cholame Hills The Cholame Hills are a low mountain range in extreme southeastern Monterey County, California. They are a northern extension of the Temblor Range, both of the California Coast Ranges System. To the south of the range lie California State Route ...

, a northern extension of the

Temblor Range The Temblor Range is a mountain range within the California Coast Ranges, at the southwestern extremity of the San Joaquin Valley in California in the United States. It runs in a northwest-southeasterly direction along the borders of Kern County a ...

, on the west. The average

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravitational pull from clouds. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, ice pellets, graupel and hail. ...

in the area ranges from , increasing northward. A portion of the Temblor Range drains into San Juan Creek, but the nearby

Carrizo Plain The Carrizo Plain ( Obispeño: ''tšɨłkukunɨtš'', "Place of the rabbits") is a large enclosed grassland plain, approximately long and up to across, in southeastern San Luis Obispo County, California, about northwest of Los Angeles. It con ...

has been cut off from the

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

tectonic Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents k ...

action. The creek also drains part of the

La Panza Range The La Panza Range is a mountain range in the Central Coast of California region in San Luis Obispo County, east of the small town of Santa Margarita. It is one of the California Coast Ranges and in the Los Padres National Forest. The range is ab ...

in the southwest of the watershed. The vast majority of the land in the watershed is rangeland, but there is also some cropland, pastureland and developed areas.

References

Bibliography

San Luis Obispo County WaterUnited States Department of Agriculture - Carrizo Plain
{{Salinas River Rivers of San Luis Obispo County, California Salinas River (California) Rivers of Southern California