Smith Creek (Arroyo Hondo tributary)
Smith Creek is a 14-mile-long (23 km) perennial stream which flows along the western flank of Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County. The creek begins near Bollinger Ridge, about 7.7 km SxSW of Mount Hamilton.
View upstream of Smith Creek at Mt. Hamilton Road crossing with California bay laurel and white alder, courtesy of Robert A. Leidy PhD, U.S. EPA
Juvenile rainbow trout briefly electrofished and measured on Smith Creek by Robert A. Leidy PhD, U.S. EPA
Mount Hamilton (California)
Mount Hamilton is a mountain in the Diablo Range in Santa Clara County, California. The mountain's peak, at 4,265 feet (1,300 m), overlooks the heavily urbanized Santa Clara Valley and is the site of Lick Observatory, the world's first permanently occupied mountain-top observatory. The asteroid 452 Hamiltonia, discovered in 1899, is named after the mountain. Golden eagle nesting sites are found on the slopes of Mount Hamilton. On clear days, Mount Tamalpais, the Santa Cruz Mountains, Monterey Bay, the Monterey Peninsula, and even Yosemite National Park are visible from the summit of the mountain.
Lick Observatory is visible atop Mount Hamilton; hillsides show typical summer golden (dry) vegetation
Hotel Santa Ysabel on the road up Mt. Hamilton just across Smith Creek in 1895, Courtesy of San Jose Public Library, California Room
Numerous times each winter temperatures drop low enough for Mount Hamilton (left) to receive as much as a foot of snow for a day or two.
Mt. Hamilton had a foot of snow on the ground on April 1, 1967
