Garfias Spring and Stream

South Pasadena isn’t particularly known for an abundance of natural vitality, yet it holds more organic beauty than most locals are aware of. The Arroyo Seco, once a vibrant haven for steelhead and many other species, has been completely transformed by urban encroachment. Concrete channels and recreational use have polluted and shrunk the stream beyond levels usable by fish, and its ecology has been largely damaged, at least, south of the Devil’s Gate Dam.

Near the western end of South Pasadena city limits, just west of 430 Arroyo Drive, about 20 or 30 steps off of the road, you’ll find a trickling natural stream nestled amongst cobblestone retaining walls. It winds down the hillside, through a nearly impassable snag of vegetation, until it drains into a grate just short of the Clarich field outfield fence. This is Garfias Spring and Stream, named after a 19th century Mexican general who lived in the area. This trickling brook has been completely defaced due to humans, just like the Arroyo Seco which it drains into.

Amidst a dense mix of native and invasive brush and trees on the east edge of the Arroyo Seco Canyon is Garfias Spring, ~30 feet north of this cobblestone Cross in honor of the historic Cathedral Oak tree.

Manuel Garfias fought for Mexico in California during the Mexican-American war. He gained ownership of the historic Rancho San Pascual in 1845, the 15,000 acre land grant that now spans parts of Pasadena, South Pasadena, and LA's San Pascual Park.

The Burke, Clarich, and Nelson baseball fields in Arroyo Park peer out from behind the brush at Garfias Spring.

As for when the spring was shrouded in concrete, that information remains unknown. The City of South Pasadena does not appear to be diverting any water out of Garfias Stream at this time.

Garfias Spring, which begins as two small, trash-riddled puddles in the middle of cobblestone retaining walls.

Thanks to the interference of human construction, Garfias Spring and stream is a confused and divided waterway. It emerges from the ground in tw0 spots on the eastern side of the Arroyo (shown on map above) before being tucked under the baseball fields and guided towards a vegetation island via a culvert (see figure 2). Garfias Stream is a watershed, not just a spring. It drains an area defined approximately by the E corner of Columbia St. and Grand Ave. down to Grand and Paloma Dr. (Please see map above)

The grate which Garfias Stream drains into, to be funneled under the baseball fields and across Stoney Drive to the Arroyo Seco stream.

Don Manuel Garfias

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At the vegetation island, the stream returns to the surface out of an artesian-well-like structure. It flows for around 600 feet until it collects in a small, polluted pond, riddled with invasive weeds. Here, the water lies nearly stagnant, in an extremely brown, sluggish flow, until pouring over a small dam and into the Arroyo. This vegetation island, which so many South Pasadena and Highland Park residents drive by every day, is actually a wetland. And it needs to be treated better. It’s infested with invasive species and pollution.

Garfias Stream’s reemergence west of Stoney Dr. The stream meanders through a swath of weeds until it reaches the Arroyo.

The Garfias Spring and Stream watershed is another example of the Arroyo’s boundless potential for restoration.

- Carter Mullen-Carey
April 2025