This is a photograph of my favorite place in the Universe (so far), Mt. Diablo in Contra Costa County, California. The city is Walnut Creek. The mountain rises 1200 meters above sea level, and is the tallest mountain in the California coast range in Northern California. On a clear day, from it's summit you can see more of the surface of the earth than from any mountain except Mt. Kilamanjaro in Africa. From Mt. Diablo, you can see well out to sea to the west, the Sierra Nevada Mountains including the peaks Yosemite National Park to the east, well into the San Joaquin Valley to the south and to the north you can see to Oregon.
Mt. Diablo is covered and surrounded by a California State Park and allows camping, hiking and picnicking. It is located in north-central Contra Costa County, about 60 miles east of San Francisco. An interpretive center is located on the higher of the two summits. The lighthouse at the top served as an early aviation navigation aid, but was turned off on December 7, 1941 after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii so attack aircraft would not be able to use it to home in on. The beacon light is no longer regularly used, but in honor of those who died during World War II it is re-lit each December 7th.
The Spanish name for the peak, Monte del Diablo, means "mountain of the devil." Though the true story is apparently not fully known, the name was supposedly given when a Spanish exploration groups' priest was found dead, staked out on the summit after some negotiations with the local natives went sour.
Mt. Diablo can be reached from the town of Danville ("southgate") on the south, fittingly on Diablo Road, and from Walnut Creek ("northgate") to the west. About half way up the mountain, there is a large day use and camping area called "Rock City" where the underlying sandstone is exposed in great pillars and lumps. The sandstone has been weathered and worked so there are many small caves and ledges - nothing very deep, but nifty to climb around on.
One of the "secret" entrances to Mt. Diablo is Mitchell Canyon on the north side of the mountain. At the end of Mitchell Canyon Rd. in Clayton, there is a small interpretive center and trail into the park. There is no driving entrance here beyond the parking lot, however.
The habitat of the mountain is primarily oak savanna and coastal chaparral, and very dry and hot during summers. In the summer, the park is occasionally closed due to extreme fire danger, so summer visitors should call ahead. Winter clouds sometime surround the peak, and the view becomes obscured. Snow is occasionally seen on the mountain, though it is never much and usually falls overnight only to melt during the following morning.
At the summit there's an interpretative center, under the floor of which is a marker for the Mt. Diablo Meridian, the major surveyors point in northern California.
For more information and in some cases photos of the mountain or from the mountain, check out the following links:
- Mt. Diablo Information
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Lindsay Wildlife Museum, Walnut Creek, CA
Mt. Diablo Interpretive Association