Course
Piru Creek originates as several small springs on the north side of Pine Mountain Ridge (California), in the Los Padres National Forest. It flows eastwards through a valley, then south to the confluence with Cedar Creek from the right. After the Cedar Creek confluence the stream turns northeast, receives Sheep Creek from the left, and Mutau Creek on the right. Piru Creek receives Lockwood Creek from the left at Sunset campground on Lockwood Flat, and flows east into a canyon where the valley walls pull in and rise steeper and higher above the river.
The Smith Fork of Piru Creek comes in from the left where the main stem turns sharply southeast, then widens into the Pyramid Lake reservoir formed by the Pyramid Dam. Now with Interstate 5 running almost a thousand feet above the canyon on the east side, Piru Creek turns south, flowing through the Piru Gorge, soon forming the boundary between Mount Pinos and Saugus Ranger Districts of the National Forest and dropping over Piru Creek Falls near the remains of California State Route 99.
The creek flows south through Piru Gorge until Frenchman's Flat and the adjoining Osito Creek confluence, which sends the Piru sharply hurrying to the west, then south again where it receives Fish Creek from the right. It crosses the boundary between Los Angeles County and Ventura County five times before being impounded in Lake Piru, the second reservoir on the creek, formed by Santa Felicia Dam. Downstream of the dam the creek's valley broadens and the creek is allowed to form meanders. It finally exits from its canyon between a pair of ridges just east of the town of Piru. Its confluence with the Santa Clara River, here a wide gravelly wash, occurs soon after.
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