Aerial Tour of San Benito River (Highway 101 to Tres Piños)

Part Two

To view these pictures, just scroll down the smaller images below, and click on any of them to see an enlarged version of the picture.
(If you have "Popups disabled" in your browser, then you can instead click in the red button to the right of each picture to see its enlargement - but in that case you will have to use the "Back" button each time to return to this page.)

(Map) The actual source of the San Benito River is further south off the bottom of this picture. This tour concerns itself only with the downstream portion of the river from approximately Tres Piños through Hollister and on to where it joins the Pajaro near the exit of Soap Lake and Highway 101.

116_1678 A closer view of an example of landslides carrying sediment into upper San Benito River just downstream from the junction with Tres Pinos Creek. This view is toward the southwest.

116_1680

116_1681

116_1683

116_1684

116_1685 Tres Pinos Creek viewed downstream towards the west.
The Tres Pinos quarry operation is in an old terrace, but the spoils are in the floodplain partly diked away from flow.

116_1688

116_1690

116_1692

116_1693 Hospital Road Crossing.
The County Planning Department is atop the bluff on the right. Old quarry operations in the river (right foreground) are now diked off from active flow.

116_1694 Union Road view, looking north toward Hollister.
Homes along Cienega Rd (foreground) fell into the river in 1998 or were moved. Major instream operations are now closed down here (lower right). The historic floodplain area is now occupied by houses (left). See Cienega Rd San Benito Co. Planning photo (inset, 1998).