Temescal Creek (Riverside County)
| Temescal Creek | |
|---|---|
Temescal Creek flows along Interstate 15 with its source Lake Elsinore in the background | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | |
| • location | Lake Elsinore |
| Mouth | |
• location | Santa Ana River |
| Length | 20 mi (32 km) |
| Basin size | 850 mi2 (2,200 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • average | 30 cubic feet per second (0.85 m3/s) |
| Basin features | |
| Progression | Southeast-northwest |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Rice Canyon Creek, Horsetheif Canyon Creek, Indian Canyon Creek, Mayhew Canyon Creek, Coldwater Canyon Creek, Brown Canyon Creek, Bedford Canyon Wash, Joseph Canyon Creek, Main Street Canyon Wash, Oak Avenue Drain |
| • right | Wasson Canyon Creek, Arroyo Del Toro, Stovepipe Canyon Wash, Gavilan Wash, Alberhill Canyon Creek, Ceramic Canyon Creek, Dawson Canyon Creek, Olsen Canyon Creek, Cajalco Creek, Arlington Valley Channel |
Temescal Creek (shown on federal maps as Temescal Wash) is an approximately 29-mile-long (47 km) watercourse in Riverside County, in the U.S. state of California. Flowing primarily in a northwestern direction, it connects Lake Elsinore with the Santa Ana River. It drains the eastern slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains on its left and on its right the western slopes of the Temescal Mountains along its length. With a drainage basin of about 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2), it is the largest tributary of the Santa Ana River, hydrologically connecting the 720-square-mile (1,900 km2) San Jacinto River and Lake Elsinore watersheds to the rest of the Santa Ana watershed. However, flowing through an arid rain shadow zone of the Santa Ana Mountains, and with diversion of ground water for human use, the creek today is ephemeral for most of its length, except for runoff from housing developments and agricultural return flows.