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Coyote Creek Dried up, Silver Creek to Hellyer, 8/10/23 by Ronald Horii
On 8/10/23, I went for a bike ride on the Coyote Creek Trail from Silver Creek Valley Road to Hellyer County Park. On the way, I stopped to look at Coyote Creek. In the past year, I've seen Coyote Creek go from dry to flooded to a trickle, and now it's back to dry. It was completely dry except for some isolated pools in Hellyer. Below are pictures of Coyote Creek taken during my bike ride, along with pictures of the same area taken earlier this year for comparison. Note the date on the pictures. At the end are reservoir and stream flow plots. The high creek flows were initially due to heavy winter rains, but then as Anderson Reservoir filled up, the reservoir's outlet pipe was opened up to max to drain it as fast as possible. This caused flooding on low sections of the Coyote Creek Trail, near Coyote Ranch and Hellyer County Park. Since the outlet pipe was small, it took months to drain the reservoir. Near the end of June, the reservoir was drained, and the outlet flow was greatly reduced. This shows the before-and-after effect of the flow reduction: "Coyote Creek Trail Flooding, Then and Now, 6/25-27/23": https://tinyurl.com/mr2pnhu4. The flow has been a trickle ever since, and the creek is drying up. Here's Coyote Creek Parkway information and maps: https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/coyote-creek-parkway, and for Hellyer County Park: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/Hellyer.aspx. Here are more of my pictures of the Coyote Creek Parkway: https://www.rhorii.com/#CoyoteCreekParkway, and Hellyer County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#Hellyer.
On 8/10/23, I went for a bike ride on the Coyote Creek Trail from Silver Creek Valley Road to Hellyer County Park. On the way, I stopped to look at Coyote Creek. In the past year, I've seen Coyote Creek go from dry to flooded to a trickle, and now it's back to dry. It was completely dry except for some isolated pools in Hellyer. Below are pictures of Coyote Creek taken during my bike ride, along with pictures of the same area taken earlier this year for comparison. Note the date on the pictures. At the end are reservoir and stream flow plots. The high creek flows were initially due to heavy winter rains, but then as Anderson Reservoir filled up, the reservoir's outlet pipe was opened up to max to drain it as fast as possible. This caused flooding on low sections of the Coyote Creek Trail, near Coyote Ranch and Hellyer County Park. Since the outlet pipe was small, it took months to drain the reservoir. Near the end of June, the reservoir was drained, and the outlet flow was greatly reduced. This shows the before-and-after effect of the flow reduction: "Coyote Creek Trail Flooding, Then and Now, 6/25-27/23": https://tinyurl.com/mr2pnhu4. The flow has been a trickle ever since, and the creek is drying up. Here's Coyote Creek Parkway information and maps: https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/coyote-creek-parkway, and for Hellyer County Park: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/Hellyer.aspx. Here are more of my pictures of the Coyote Creek Parkway: https://www.rhorii.com/#CoyoteCreekParkway, and Hellyer County Park: http://www.rhorii.com/#Hellyer.
