Serrano Creek is a roughly tributary of

San Diego Creek San Diego Creek is a urban waterway flowing into Upper Newport Bay in Orange County, California in the United States. Its watershed covers in parts of eight cities, including Irvine, Tustin, and Costa Mesa. From its headwaters in Laguna Woo ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

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 ...

. The creek starts in the

Santa Ana Mountains The Santa Ana Mountains are a short peninsular mountain range along the coast of Southern California in the United States. They extend for approximately southeast of the Los Angeles Basin largely along the border between Orange and Riverside co ...

in a canyon in

Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park is a public regional park in southern Orange County, California. Whiting Ranch features riparian, oak woodland, grassland, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub environments throughout various canyons and hillscapes. T ...

, near the boundary of the

Cleveland National Forest Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres (), mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the forest. It is the southernmost U.S. National Forest of California. It is administered by th ...

. It then flows southwest into the city of Lake Forest, running in a channelized course roughly parallel to Aliso Creek. It abruptly turns northwest then southwest at 90-degree angles as it enters a large

storm drain A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, United States, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to Drainage, drain excess rain and ground water ...

that takes it the rest of the way to the confluence with the La Cañada Channel, creating the main stem of San Diego Creek.

References

Orange County, California articles needing infoboxes Rivers of Orange County, California Rivers of Southern California {{California-river-stub