San Juan Valley, sometimes called San Benito Valley formerly Canada de San Benito or Llano De San Juan is a valley that has its head near the

Gabilan Range The Gabilan Range or Gabilán Range (Spanish for "sparrow hawk") are a mountain range in the inner California Coast Ranges System, located in Monterey County and San Benito County of central California. Pinnacles National Park is located in the so ...

. Bounded on the north by the Lomerias Muertas and the Flint Hills and south and east by the Gabilan Range, and the gap between the Gabilan Range and Flint Hills where the

San Benito River The San Benito River is a long river flowing northwesterly between the Diablo Range and the Gabilan Range, on the Central Coast of California.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map acces ...

enters the valley from the east. It terminated where the

has its confluence the

Pajaro River The Pajaro River (''pájaro'' is ''bird'' in Spanish language, Spanish) is a U.S. river in the Central Coast (California), Central Coast region of California, forming part of the border between San Benito County, California, San Benito and Santa ...

, about upstream from the river's outlet in

Monterey Bay Monterey Bay is a bay of the Pacific Ocean located on the coast of the U.S. state of California, south of the San Francisco Bay Area and its major city at the south of the bay, San Jose. San Francisco itself is further north along the coast, by a ...

. It is the lowest part of the watershed of the San Benito River and can be considered part of the San Benito Valley. Named for the

Mission San Juan Bautista Mission San Juan Bautista is a Spanish mission in San Juan Bautista, San Benito County, California. Founded on June 24, 1797 by Fermín Lasuén of the Franciscan order, the mission was the fifteenth of the Spanish missions established in presen ...

which was established in this valley.

References

{{Authority control Valleys of San Benito County, California Valleys of California