Walnut Creek

A creek that starts in San Dimas and meets the San Gabriel River near the cities of El Monte and Baldwin Park.

Walnut Creek should start somewhere in the numerous headwaters in the San Dimas Experimental Forest of the Angeles Natioal Forest, but due to nearly 100 years of flood control it appears to start next to Puddingstone Reservoir, which is, interestingly supposed to be filled with Walnut Creek water. A little west of the reservoir is Walnut Creek Park, an equestrian and hiking trail. It is a startly contrast to most of the creek since it is left in a relatively natural (Although most likely man-made) condition, it abruptly ends shortly before reaching Covina Hills Rd. To get to it find the small dirt parking lot located near the underpass of Interstate 210. In West Covina there is also a seemingly abandoned bike trail (There is literally 2 inches of dirt covering the asphalt in some parts) along the concrete channel. It ends abruptly at a gate.

Where in Walnut is the Creek?

On Liberty Bell Plaza in Walnut Creek, CA, the creeks that the town was built around are celebrated. They are commemorated in concrete and surrounded by advertisements, Nordstroms and Starbucks, and not an inch of the actual creeks can be seen: they are all underground, built over, too messy and polluted to show. They are nothing but something for faceless suburbia to graft their identity on to. This treatment of the creeks seems strangely similar to a dictatorship paying lipservice to freedom.

But where, indeed, is the creek? Walking down Main Street, about a hundred feet of it shows under a bridge, coming out of one tunnel into another. Climbing down the embankment (there are no stairs, obviously), I read the graffiti:
.. A spray-painted peace sign
.. "Jason is a Pussy"
.. "If you smoke pot but don't have a pipe, come here on Sunday at 2 PM"
Not much, no. But at least the "dissidents" step into the water, unlike the "dictators".