Temecula Creek runs 32.6 miles (52.5 km) through southern Riverside County

Riverside County, California

Riverside County is a county in the U.S. state of California. One of 58 California counties, it covers in the southern part of the state, and stretches from Orange County to the Colorado River, which forms the state border with Arizona. The county derives its name from the city of Riverside,...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA, past the rural communities of the Temecula Valley along the State Route 79

California State Route 79

State Route 79 is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. The route goes from Interstate 10 in Riverside County to Interstate 8 in San Diego County.-Route description:...

 corridor, such as Aguanga

Aguanga, California

Aguanga is a census-designated place located within the Inland Empire, Riverside County, California. It is located south-southeast of Hemet. Aguanga lies at an elevation of 1955 feet...

, and ending near the city of Temecula

Temecula, California

Temecula is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States with a population of 100,097 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it the lowest populated American city over 100,000 population. It was incorporated on December 1, 1989...

. The creek is filled with boulders, and is typically dry and sandy. It is a relatively undeveloped coastal-draining watershed. Until the 1920s water flowed in Temecula Creek year-round.

Biologically diverse, supporting both coastal and desert fauna and flora, it is bounded by the Agua Tibia Wilderness

Agua Tibia Wilderness

Agua Tibia Wilderness is a protected area in Riverside and San Diego counties, California. It is mostly within the Palomar Ranger District of the Cleveland National Forest....

 area and the Cleveland National Forest

Cleveland National Forest

Cleveland National Forest encompasses 460,000 acres , mostly of chaparral, with a few riparian areas. A warm dry mediterranean climate prevails over the Forest. It is the southernmost National forest of California. It is administered by the United States Forest Service, a government agency within...

. The creek supports coastal sage scrub

Coastal sage scrub

Coastal sage scrub is a low scrubland plant community found in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion of coastal California and northern Baja California. It is characterized by low-growing aromatic, and drought-deciduous shrubs adapted to the semi-arid Mediterranean climate of the...

, including Jojoba

Jojoba

Jojoba, pronounced , is a shrub native to the Sonoran and Mojave deserts of Arizona, California, and Mexico. It is the sole species of the family Simmondsiaceae, placed in the order Caryophyllales. It is also known as goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box...

, alluvial fan

Alluvial fan

An alluvial fan is a fan-shaped deposit formed where a fast flowing stream flattens, slows, and spreads typically at the exit of a canyon onto a flatter plain. A convergence of neighboring alluvial fans into a single apron of deposits against a slope is called a bajada, or compound alluvial...

 scrub, mesquite

Mesquite

Mesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in northern Mexico through the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Deserts, and up into the Southwestern United States as far north as southern Kansas, west to the Colorado Desert in California,and east to the eastern fifth of Texas, where...

 bosque

Bosque

Bosque is the name for areas of gallery forest found along the riparian flood plains of stream and river banks in the southwestern United States...

 mix, Coast Live Oak

Coast Live Oak

Quercus agrifolia, the Coast Live Oak, is an evergreen oak , native to the California Floristic Province. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is classified in the red oak section Quercus agrifolia, the Coast Live Oak,...

 woodland

Woodland

Ecologically, a woodland is a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade. Woodlands may support an understory of shrubs and herbaceous plants including grasses. Woodland may form a transition to shrubland under drier conditions or during early stages of...

, and mature Fremont Cottonwood-willow

Willow

Willows, sallows, and osiers form the genus Salix, around 400 species of deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist soils in cold and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere...

 woodland.

In addition to riparian breeders, birds include Least Bell's Vireo, Nuttall's quail

Quail

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...

, Ladder-backed woodpecker

Woodpecker

Woodpeckers are near passerine birds of the order Piciformes. They are one subfamily in the family Picidae, which also includes the piculets and wrynecks. They are found worldwide and include about 180 species....

, and California and Gambel's quail

Quail

Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally considered in the order Galliformes. Old World quail are found in the family Phasianidae, while New World quail are found in the family Odontophoridae...

. Arroyo Southwestern Toad

Toad

A toad is any of a number of species of amphibians in the order Anura characterized by dry, leathery skin , short legs, and snoat-like parotoid glands...

 are also found in Temecula Creek.

Temecula Creek has a slightly larger drainage area than Murrieta Creek. The Santa Margarita River

Santa Margarita River

The Santa Margarita River is a short intermittent river on the Pacific coast of southern California in the United States, approximately long. One of the last free-flowing rivers in southern California, it drains an arid region of the Coast Ranges between Los Angeles and San Diego at the southern...

 begins at the confluence of the two creeks.

The village of Temecula originated on a bluff on the south bank of Temecula Creek opposite the old Wolf's Store according to an 1853 survey.

Conservation

In 1948, the owners of the Vail Ranch built a 132 feet (40.2 m) dam on Temecula Creek, the Vail Lake

Vail Lake

Vail Lake is a large reservoir in western Riverside County, California, located on Temecula Creek in the Santa Margarita River watershed, approximately east of Temecula....

 Dam, approximately 10 miles (16.1 km) above the confluence with the Santa Margarita River. The lake is a public recreational use area.

Grazing along Temecula Creek has injured its understory

Understory

Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs...

.

With the encroachment of homes on both sides of Temecula Creek, portions may be channelized.