<Tr> <Th> Traversed by </Th> <Td> Interstate 5, State Route 99 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Watercourses </Th> <Td> San Joaquin River </Td> </Tr> <P> The San Joaquin Valley / ˌsæn hw ɑː ˈkiːn / is the area of the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California that lies south of the Sacramento--San Joaquin River Delta and is drained by the San Joaquin River . It comprises seven Northern California counties--all of Kings County; a majority of Fresno, Merced, Stanislaus counties; segments of Madera and Tulare counties--and a majority of Kern County, in Southern California . Although a majority of the valley is rural, it does contain cities such as Fresno, Bakersfield, Stockton, Modesto, Turlock, Porterville, Visalia, Merced, and Hanford . </P> <P> The San Joaquin Valley extends from the Sacramento--San Joaquin River Delta in the north to the Tehachapi Mountains in the south, and from the various California coastal ranges (from the Diablo Range in the north to the Temblor Range in the south) in the west to the Sierra Nevada in the east . Unlike the Sacramento Valley, the river system for which the San Joaquin Valley is named does not extend very far along the valley . Most of the valley south of Fresno, instead, drains into Tulare Lake, which no longer exists continuously due to diversion of its sources . The valley's primary river is the San Joaquin, which drains north through about half of the valley into the Sacramento--San Joaquin River Delta . The Kings and Kern Rivers are in the southern endorheic basin of the valley, all of which have been largely diverted for agricultural uses and are mostly dry in their lower reaches . </P>

Where does the san joaquin valley start and end