Coyote Creek drains a roughly diamond-shaped watershed between the drainage basins of the San Gabriel and Santa Ana rivers, bounded on the north by the small mountain ranges Chino Hills, Puente Hills and West Coyote Hills. The watershed, with the exception of these hills, a small partial divide inside the watershed, and several recreational areas, such as Chino Hills State Park, is almost entirely developed, and is in sharp contrast to the San Gabriel River watershed viewed as a whole, which in total has only twenty-six percent of its area developed.