Salt Creek is a small coastal stream in southern Orange County in the U.S. state of California. The 4mi creek drains 6.1mi2 in parts of the cities of Laguna Niguel, Dana Point, and San Juan Capistrano. The mostly channelized creek has no named surface tributaries. The creek begins in the central portion of the city of Laguna Niguel and flows west and south through a narrow canyon referred to as the Salt Creek Corridor, which is mostly inside a long and narrow regional park. It then flows into the Monarch Beach Golf Course in the city of Dana Point and enters a subsurface storm channel ("Arroyo Salada Storm Channel") which carries it to its discharge point at Salt Creek County Beach.NameSalt Creek's name originates from when Spanish explorers named the creek "Arroyo Salado" . The name given to the creek by the indigenous people has been lost.CourseSalt Creek begins in a series of small canyons west of the Street of the Golden Lantern, an arterial roadway that connects with Dana Point at the south end. The canyon the creek begins in is protected as part of the Salt Creek Corridor Regional Park, which covers most of the creek's course. The creek winds west through the narrow gorge, picking up runoff from numerous residential communities both north and south of the Salt Creek Canyon. Just before it crosses beneath Niguel Road, which also runs in a north-south direction, it receives runoff from a large storm drain on the right bank; this drains much of the small valley to the north of the Salt Creek Canyon.
