Temescal Creek (Riverside County)

Temescal Creek
Map of the Santa Ana River watershed. Temescal Creek connects the San Jacinto River to the Santa Ana River at Lake Elsinore.
Location
Country	United States
Physical characteristics
Source
• location	Lake Elsinore
Mouth
• location	Santa Ana River
Length	20 miles (32 km)
Basin size	850 square miles (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^[1]) is an approximately 29-mile-long (47 km)^[2] 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.