San Francisquito Creek is a creek that flows into southwest San Francisco Bay in California, United States. Historically it was called the Arroyo de San Francisco by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. San Francisquito Creek courses through the towns of Portola Valley and Woodside, as well as the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto. The creek and its Los Trancos Creek tributary define the boundary between San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
El Palo Alto and the San Francisquito Creek c. 1910
Stanford removed the Lagunita Diversion Dam and Fish Ladder on San Francisquito Creek, near Happy Hollow Lane in Menlo Park, in late 2018, improving access for salmonid spawning runs up Los Trancos Creek and also up Corte Madera Creek to Searsville Dam
USGS Stream Gage Weir may be a partial barrier to trout and salmon spawning runs up the San Francisquito Creek mainstem
Pair of gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), the only tree-climbing canid in the Americas, den and forage for rodents, grasshoppers and berries near the mouth of Matadero Creek in the Palo Alto Baylands
Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; and Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City to the west. It had 33,780 residents at the 2020 United States census. It is home to the corporate headquarters of Meta, and is where Google, Roblox Corporation and Round Table Pizza were founded. The train station holds the record as the oldest continually operating train station in California. It is one of the most educated cities in California and the United States; nearly 70% of residents over 25 have earned a bachelor's degree or higher.
Downtown Menlo Park
Menlo Park Station, c. 1918
Meta Platforms (then known as Facebook), 2013
Image: Peter Ohtaki
