 After joining with West Fork Cherry Creek, it flows south into Cherry Lake, a large reservoir formed by the Cherry Valley Dam.Below the dam the creek receives Eleanor Creek from the left and continues for about south then west through a canyon in the Sierra Nevada foothills to its confluence with the Tuolumne River about west of Mather.The East Fork Cherry Creek, long, has its beginnings at Summit Meadow near Bigelow Peak and the Tuolumne-Mono County line, at an elevation of .