You Are Here - Cottonwood Creek Watershed Map - Encinitas, CA - 'You Are Here' Maps on Waymarking.com

The sign says, "We All Live in a Watershed

A watershed is an are of land naturally defining by highpoints and ridgelines that drains to a common waterway such as a creek, lagoon, or the ocean. A watershed is home to people, plants, and animals that are uniquely connected and impacted by one another.

Cottonwood Creek Watershed

Cottonwood Creek Watershed is a small costal drainage that is part of a network of watersheds within the Carlsbad Hydrological unit. Cottonwood Creek Watershed is located in the heart of Encinitas.

The watershed land area is about 3 square miles (2,000 acres) and slops gently westward toward the pacific Ocean. About 95% of the watershed is built-up with residential neighborhoods, commercial areas, a golf course, and community parks.

Cottonwood Creek flows year-round and is fed by groundwater and urban runoff during the dry weather months. Cottonwood Creek watershed receives an average annual rainfall of 10 inches per year. When it rains, stormwater runoff from throughout the watershed flows through Cottonwood Creek and into the Pacific Ocean at Moonlight State Beach.

Early Days

Cottonwood Creek was instrumental in the establishment of Encinitas in the late 1800s. Water for the town was pumped by a windmill out of Cottonwood Creek into a large wooden tank, which also supplied water for the California Southern railroad when it came through town.

At the turn of the century, Monday mornings were community laundry days in Encinitas. Women would gather along the banks of Cottonwood Creek and make a special event of wash day as their children played in the surf. Clean clothes were hung on nearby bushes to dry.

Families thrived along Cottonwood Creek in the early days of Encinitas. Land within the watershed was mostly dominated by agriculture at that time. Gradually these areas have been replaced by neighborhoods and commercial uses."

Location Name: Encinitas

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Date Logged Log   08/05/2020 bluesnote visited it