San Felipe Lake
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| San Felipe Lake | |
|---|---|
  San Felipe Lake  San Felipe Lake | |
| Location | 6 miles (9.7 km) east-southeast of Gilroy in San Benito County, California |
| Coordinates | 36°58′49″N 121°27′44″W / 36.9803913°N 121.4622846°W[1] |
| Type | Tectonic lake |
| Primary inflows | Pacheco Creek |
| Max. length | 0.6 miles (0.97 km) |
| Max. width | 0.3 miles (0.48 km) |
| Max. depth | 18 feet (5.5 m) |
| Surface elevation | 144 feet (44 m)[1] |
San Felipe Lake is a perennial natural lake located in the southern Santa Clara Valley, almost wholly in northern San Benito County with its western edge on the border with Santa Clara County, California.[2] The lake is a critical wetland, rare plant, and wildlife resource in need of additional conservation and enhancement.[3]
San Felipe Lake is the terminus of Pacheco Creek, which drains the western slope of California's Diablo Range. Its outflows once formed the beginning of the Pajaro River through a series of meandering sloughs and wetlands, but now flow through the Miller Canal, constructed in 1874, to the upper reaches of the river.[4] The Pajaro River, in turn, conveys its waters ultimately to Monterey Bay and the Pacific Ocean.
San Felipe Lake's primary tributary, Pacheco Creek, was also known as Arroyo de San Felipe[5] The San Felipe name is preserved in the names of Spanish land grants, Rancho Ausaymas y San Felipe and to the south Rancho Bolsa de San Felipe, both given to Don Francisco Pérez Pacheco in 1833 and 1840, respectively.[6]
San Felipe Lake was also known historically as Soap Lake.[7] However, Soap Lake is a much larger depression or floodplain between the Sargent Hills of the southern Santa Cruz Mountains and the Upper Pajaro River, including San Felipe Lake. The Soap Lake Floodplain was historically a mix of seasonal and perennial, fresh and saline wetlands connected by swales and sloughs.[8] Soap Lake plays an important role in attenuating flood peaks on the Pajaro River.[4]
Watershed
San Felipe Lake is a sag pond dammed by the fault scarp of the Calaveras Fault, which runs along the western shoreline of the lake. The lake is approximately 0.3 miles (0.48 km) wide and 0.6 miles (0.97 km) long, with a surface area of 0.12 square miles (31 ha), but is estimated to be less than 50-60% of its original summer size since construction of the outflows to the Miller Canal.[4]
Its primary inflow is from Pacheco Creek, but its other tributaries are Tequisquita Slough and Ortega Creek.[9] Tequisquita Slough, in turn, receives flows from Santa Ana Creek,[10] Arroyo de las Viboras,[11] and Arroyo Dos Picachos.[12]