Black Creek (N.M. and Ariz.)

Black Creek of Arizona is a 55-mi (89 km) long north tributary of the Puerco River, in northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico. The Black Creek flows south along an east and southeast perimeter section of the Defiance Plateau; Red Lake (Arizona–New Mexico), 7,150 feet (2,179 m) (at Navajo, New Mexico), lies in Red Valley near the origin of Black Creek, and other watercourses meeting at Red Lake. Red Lake is located at the north of the river valley, Black Creek Valley, which extends south to Window Rock, Arizona. Fort Defiance, Arizona, is at a northwest section of Black Creek. Other sources of the creek are from the east in New Mexico. The Chuska Mountains, of Arizona and New Mexico, trend southeasterly, (in the south) and form the east border of Black Creek Valley; an extension south from the Chuskas, the Manuelito Plateau, forms the east border, from Red Lake south, to just east of Fort Defiance. Black Creek continues south, and south of Window Rock the Black Creek Valley ends south of St. Michaels, Arizona. Approximately 6-mi south of St. Michaels, the smaller Oak Springs Valley begins. Black Creek exits the valley southwest, through a 4-mi long canyon to enter a due-south flowing stretch to Houck, Arizona, and its confluence with the Puerco River. Black Creek and Black Creek Valley are mostly due-north, south trending, paralleling the New Mexico border; only a small section of Black Creek actually courses in New Mexico, south of Red Lake. The origin of the Puerco River, on the other hand, is east of Gallup, New Mexico, at the Continental Divide south of Crownpoint, New Mexico.