1.
Briones Hills
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The Briones Hills form a low mountain range in western Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States. The hills are in the Southern Inner Coast Ranges group of the California Coast Ranges System, cites and towns adjacent to or in the foothills of the range include, Lafayette, Martinez, Orinda, Pleasant Hill, Alhambra Valley, and Walnut Creek. Briones Regional Park, in the East Bay Regional Park District System and it also protects some of the ranges California oak woodland, chaparral, and riparian habitats. Briones Reservoir, of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, is located in the western area and it is impounded by Briones Dam on Bear Creek. The headwaters of Pinole Creek are in the Briones Hills, on the slope of Costa Peak. The headwaters of Alhambra Creek are in the hills within Briones Regional Park, mountain ranges of the San Francisco Bay Area Natural history of the California Coast Ranges
2.
Contra Costa County, California
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Contra Costa County is a county in the state of California in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 1,049,025, the name is Spanish for opposite coast, referring to its position on the other side of the bay from San Francisco. Contra Costa County is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area and it occupies the northern portion of the East Bay region and is primarily suburban. In the northern part of the county, significant coal and sand deposits were formed in even earlier geologic eras, other areas of the county have ridges exposing ancient but intact seashells, embedded in sandstone layers alternating with limestone. Layers of volcanic ash ejected from geologically recent but now extinct volcanoes, compacted and now tilted by compressive forces, may be seen at the site of some road excavations. This county is an agglomeration of several distinct geologic terranes, as is most of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, younger deposits at middle altitudes include pillow lavas, the product of undersea volcanic eruptions. There is an extensive but little recorded human history pre-European settlement in this area, the earliest definitively established occupation by modern man appears to have occurred six to ten thousand years ago. However, there may have been human presence far earlier, at least as far as non–settling populations are concerned, extensive trading from tribe to tribe transferred exotic materials such as obsidian throughout the region from far distant Californian tribes. Unlike the nomadic Native American of the Great Plains it appears that these tribes did not incorporate warfare into their culture but were generally cooperative. Within these cultures the concept of individual or collective land ownership was nonexistent, early European settlers in the region, however, did not record much about the culture of the natives. Most of what is known comes from preserved contemporaneous and excavated artifacts. Although there were no missions established within this county, Spanish influence here was direct and extensive, in 1821 Mexico gained independence from Spain. Mission lands extended throughout the Bay Area, including portions of Contra Costa County, between 1836 and 1846, during the era when California was a province of independent Mexico, the following 15 land grants were made in Contra Costa County. Rough surveying was based on a map, or diseño, measured by streams, shorelines, and/or horseman who marked it with rope, lands outside rancho grants were designated el sobrante, as in surplus or excess, and considered common lands. The law required the construction of a house within a year, fences were not required and were forbidden where they might interfere with roads or trails. Locally a large family required roughly 2000 head of cattle and two leagues of land to live comfortably. Foreign entrepreneurs came to the area to provide goods that Mexico couldn’t, Rancho Canada de los Vaqueros was granted to Francisco Alviso, Antonio Higuera, and Manuel Miranda. Two ranchos, both called Rancho San Ramon, were granted by the Mexican government in the San Ramon Valley, in 1833, Bartolome Pacheco and Mariano Castro shared the two square league Rancho San Ramon
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
East Bay Regional Park District
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The East Bay Regional Park District is a special district operating in Alameda County and Contra Costa County, California, within the East Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area. It maintains and operates a system of parks which is the largest urban regional park district in the United States. The administrative office is located in Oakland, as of 2015, EBRPD spans 120,000 acres with 65 parks and over 1,200 miles of trails. Some of these parks are areas, others include a variety of visitor attractions. The trails are used for non-motorized transportation such as biking, hiking. Nearly 150 miles of paved trails through urban areas link the parks together, a destructive grass fire that broke out in Wildcat Canyon blew west into Berkeley on September 27,1923 and burned down 640 structures homes. The East Bay Water Company was harshly criticized for its failure to deliver water to successfully fight the fire. A state law was passed that enabled citizens of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties to create a district that could obtain water from the Mokelumne River. The East Bay Municipal District was formed and approved by the electorate, the EBRPD was founded in 1934, and acquired its first land two years later, when the East Bay Municipal Utility District sold 2,166 acres of its surplus land. The founders of the district included Robert Sibley, a hiking enthusiast, Hollis Thompson, then Berkeley City Manager, and Charles Lee Tilden, among others. William Penn Mott, Jr. served as director of the agency from 1962 to 1967, in June 2013, EBRPD purchased a 1,900 acres tract of land formerly known as Roddy Ranch in east Contra Costa County. The tract lies south of Antioch and west of Brentwood. The cost was reported as $14.24 million, funding will also be provided by California Wildlife Conservation Board and an unidentified private foundation. The acquisition does not include Roddy Ranch Golf Club or about 240 acres of privately owned land inside the project boundary, the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy will install gates, fencing and signs around the tract in the coming year, while the sale is in escrow. The new area will likely be named Deer Valley Regional Park, in 2016, Vargas Plateau Regional Park in Fremont was the first park ever to have been shut down as the result of legal action in the more than 80-year history of EBRPD. During 2014, EBRPD cut park hours on a temporary and interim basis to reduce access to Mission Peak in Fremont. The parks administered by the EBRPD vary greatly in size and character, there are also bay shore parks such as the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline north of Richmond, the Coyote Hills Regional Park near Fremont, the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline on San Leandro Bay, and the Oyster Bay Regional Shoreline south of the Oakland International Airport, the district also includes a former farm, a former coal mine, an extinct volcano, and one of the biggest dog-walking parks in the country. Redwood Regional Park contains the largest remaining stand of coast redwood in the East Bay
5.
San Francisco Bay Area
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The San Francisco Bay Area is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco. The Bay Areas nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California, the fifth-largest in the United States, the Bay Area has the second-most Fortune 500 Companies in the United States, and is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The eastern side of the bay, consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is known locally as the East Bay, the inner East Bay is more densely populated, with generally older buildings, and a more ethnically diverse population. The word Lamorinda was coined by combining the names of the cities it includes, Lafayette, Moraga, walnut Creek is situated east of Lamorinda and north of the San Ramon Valley and, together with Concord, Martinez, and Pleasant Hill comprises Central Contra Costa County. The cities of Antioch, Pittsburg, Brentwood, Oakley and the areas surrounding them comprise East Contra Costa County. The Tri-Valley consists of the Amador, the Livermore, and the San Ramon Valleys, dublin and Pleasanton comprise the Amador Valley, Livermore lies in the Livermore Valley, and the San Ramon Valley consists of Alamo, Danville, Diablo and its namesake, San Ramon. The outer East Bay is connected to the inner East Bay by BART, Interstate 580 to the south, and State Routes State Route 4 to the north, the outer East Bays infrastructure was mostly built up after World War II. This area remains largely white demographically, although the Hispanic and Filipino populations have grown significantly over the past 2–3 decades, the region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area encompasses Marin County, Sonoma County, Napa County, the city of Fairfield, being part of Solano County, is often considered the easternmost city of the North Bay. With few exceptions, this region is affluent, Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the state. The North Bay is relatively rural compared to the remainder of the Bay Area, with areas of undeveloped open space, farmland. Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is the North Bays largest city, with a population of 167,815 and a Metropolitan Statistical Area population of 466,891, making it the fifth-largest city in the Bay Area. The North Bay is the section of the Bay Area that is not currently served by a commuter rail service. The area from San Francisco to the Silicon Valley, geographically part of the San Francisco Peninsula, is known locally as The Peninsula, many of these families are of foreign background and have significantly contributed to the diversity of the area. Whereas the term peninsula technically refers to the entire geographical San Franciscan Peninsula, in local terms, San Francisco is surrounded by water on three sides, the north, east, and west. The city squeezes roughly 870,000 people in under 47 square miles, on any given day, there can be as many as 1 million people in the city because of the commuting population and tourism
6.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
7.
East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
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The eastern region of the San Francisco Bay Area, commonly referred to as the East Bay, includes cities along the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay. The region has grown to include inland communities in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, with a population of roughly 2.5 million in 2010, it is the most populous subregion in the Bay Area. Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay and the third largest in the Bay Area, the city serves as a major transportation hub for the U. S. West Coast, and its port is the largest in Northern California, increased population has led to the growth of such large edge cities as Berkeley, Hayward, Concord and Fremont. The Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869 with its terminus at the newly constructed Oakland Long Wharf. Today the Port of Oakland is the Bay Areas largest port, in 1868, the University of California was formed from the private College of California and a new campus was built in what would become Berkeley. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake saw a number of refugees flee to the relatively undamaged East Bay. As the East Bay grew, the push to connect it with a permanent link than ferry service resulted in the completion of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936. The Bay Area saw further growth in the decades following World War II, the 1937 completion of the Caldecott Tunnel through the Berkeley Hills fueled growth further east, where there was undeveloped land. Cities in the Diablo Valley, including Concord and Walnut Creek, the addition of the BART commuter rail system in 1972 further encouraged development in increasingly far-flung regions of the East Bay. Today, the valleys east of the Berkeley Hills contain large affluent suburban communities such as Walnut Creek, San Ramon, the East Bay is not a formally defined region, aside from its being described as a region inclusive of Alameda and Contra Costa counties. As development moves generally eastward, new areas are described as being part of the East Bay, beyond the borders of Alameda County, the large population of Tracy is connected as a bedroom community housing commuters traveling to or through the East Bay. Except for some hills and ridges which exist as parklands or undeveloped land, and some farmland in eastern Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, the East Bay is highly urbanized. The East Bay shoreline is a corridor with several cities exceeding 100,000 residents, including Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Richmond. In the inland valleys on the east side of the Berkeley Hills, the land is developed, particularly on the eastern fringe of Contra Costa county. In the inland valleys, the density is less and the cities smaller. The only cities exceeding 100,000 residents in the valleys are Antioch. The free East Bay Monthly has been published since 1970, in the early years of the evolution of USA Today, during the early 1980s, they operated regional newspapers, with the regions paper entitled East Bay Today
8.
Lafayette, California
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Lafayette is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States. As of 2011, the population was estimated to be 24,285. It was named after the Marquis de La Fayette, a French military hero of the American Revolutionary War, today Lafayette is known for its pastoral rolling hills and wealthy inhabitants. In 2009, estimated household income in Lafayette was over $120,000, more than double the statewide average. Before the colonization of the region by Spain, Lafayette and its vicinity were inhabited by the Saclan tribe of the indigenous Bay Miwok, ohlone also populated some of the areas along Lafayette Creek. The indigenous inhabitants first contact with Europeans was in the late 18th century with the founding of Catholic missions in the region, most of what is currently Lafayette was given as a Mexican land grant, Rancho Acalanes to Candelario Valencia in 1834. The name Acalanes seems to have come from the name of a village in the area. American settlement started with the arrival of Elam Brown from St. Joseph and he purchased Rancho Acalanes in 1848. The settlement continued to grow due to its proximity to San Francisco, starting with Browns group of 18 settlers. Brown founded a mill in 1853, a school began in 1852 in a one-room schoolhouse, taught by a 25-year-old Kentucky migrant, Benjamin Shreve. By 1865 the school had expanded to 43 students in five classes, in 1893, a new schoolhouse was built to accommodate the increasing number of students, this building still stands today. On March 2,1857 the LaFayette post office was established by the U. S. Postal Service, the name LaFayette came together with the communitys first post office. In 1857 Benjamin Shreve, owner and manager of a roadside hotel-general store, applied for a post office for the community, first requesting the name Centerville. When informed that a post office with that already existed in California, Shreve suggested La Fayette. The first LaFayette post office was established at 3535 Plaza Way and Shreve became the towns first permanent postmaster, holding the job for 30 years. Spelling, On the original document from the U. S. Postal Service, dated 2 March 1857, in 1864 the place name Lafayette first appeared on a map of the area, titled Bancrofts Map of California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. Yet research by Ruth Dyer, Lafayette historian, shows that the name of the post office and of the new town soon began to be written as two words, “La Fayette. ”By 1890 it had changed to one word, Lafayette. Post Office Department in Feb.1899, then by 1905 it was back to two words
9.
Walnut Creek, California
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Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located 16 miles east of the city of Oakland in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants, as of 2014, the citys total estimated population is 67,673. Diablo, and the Tactan at Danville and Walnut Creek, on San Ramon Creek, todays Walnut Creek is located amidst the earlier site of four Mexican land grants. One of these land grants – measuring 18,000 acres – belonged to Juana Sanchez de Pacheco, Ygnacio Sibrian, one of the grandsons, created the first roofed home in the valley in about 1850. The grant was called Rancho Arroyo de Las Nueces y Bolbones, named after the principal waterway, the Arroyo de las Nueces was named for the occurrence in the valley of the native species of walnut tree, the California Walnut. With the coming of American settlers following the Mexican-American War, a settlement called The Corners emerged, named because it was the place where roads from Pacheco. The site of this first American settlement is today at the intersection of Mt. Diablo Boulevard. The first town settler was William Slusher, who built a dwelling on the bank of Walnut Creek, in the year 1855, Milo Hough of Lafayette built the hotel named Walnut Creek House in the corners. A blacksmith shop and a store soon joined the hotel, two decades later, the community changed its name from The Corners to Walnut Creek. In December 1862 a United States Post Office was established, the downtown street patterns laid out in 1871–1872 by pioneer Homer Shuey on a portion of one of his familys large cattle ranches are still present today. Walnut Creek began to grow with the arrival of Southern Pacific Railroad service in 1891, on October 21,1914, the town and the surrounding area of 500 acres ), were incorporated as the 8th city in Contra Costa County. A branch line of the Southern Pacific railroad ran through Walnut Creek until the late 1970s, the East Bay Regional Park Districts Iron Horse Trail, used by walkers, runners and bikers, runs over what were portions of that branch line. The mainline of the Sacramento Northern Railway passed through Walnut Creek, today, the Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO Line line of the Bay Area Rapid Transit serves Walnut Creek with a station adjacent to Highway 680. Walnut Creek is located at 37°54′23″N 122°03′54″W, portions lie in both the San Ramon Valley and the Ygnacio Valley below the western slopes of Mount Diablo. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 19.8 sq mi,0.06 percent of which is water. Walnut Creek owns more open space per capita than any community in the state of California. In 1974, Walnut Creek voters approved a $6.7 million bond measure that allowed the city to purchase 1,800 acres of undeveloped hillsides, ridge lines, and park sites. Walnut Creek owns parts of Lime Ridge Open Space, Shell Ridge Open Space, Acalanes Ridge Open Space, the East Bay Regional Park District operates Diablo Foothills Regional Park and Castle Rock Regional Recreation Area, both in Walnut Creek
10.
Pleasant Hill, California
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Pleasant Hill is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 33,152 at the 2010 census, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.1 square miles. Pleasant Hill has a landscape with some valleys and rolling hills. In undisturbed wilderness, oak woodlands and mixed woods can be found and it is located in the central East San Francisco Bay. Winter daytime temperatures tend to be in the fifties and sixties, on very rare occasions, the temperatures can reach the one hundred degree range during extreme heat waves. Freezing in winter is rare, but it does happen, summer fog is occasional but winter fog is very common. This area began to be developed more in the 1920s, as agricultural land was subdivided for housing. Monument Boulevard was named after the Soldiers Memorial Monument to commemorate soldiers of the Great War and it was erected on December 11,1927. The monument depicts one black and three white soldiers and it is 45 feet tall, constructed of formed concrete, and weighs 150 tons. In 1954 the monument was moved to its current site at Boyd Road, developed largely in the years following World War II, this area did not have a post office until 1948. On February 21,1967, Century 21 Theaters opened an 895-seat dome theater between Monument Boulevard and Hookston Road, visible from the freeway after it was constructed, the futuristic dome-topped cinema became an iconic landmark for the newly incorporated city. The theater was designed by prolific Bay Area architect Vincent G. Raney and it had a distinctive 50-foot-high domed ceiling and oversized curved screen. The theater was built to showcase the Cinerama widescreen process developed in the 1950s. The screen was later updated to standard flat-screen, in 1973, four additional single-screen auditoriums were added to the front of the building. Renamed as Century 5 Theatres, it continued to be known familiarly as the Dome, the city hall of Pleasant Hill, completed in the late 20th century, has won several awards for architectural design. For most of its history, Pleasant Hill did not have a true downtown or Main Street, in 1991, the city began planning the redevelopment of the area around the intersection of Monument and Contra Costa boulevards. In July 2000, Downtown Pleasant Hill finally opened, the privately owned and operated outdoor shopping center was designed to resemble a typical small Main Street. Starting in 2003, CinéArts operated the former Century 5 Theatres, screening primarily independent, due to changes in viewing habits, as many people screened movies at home, business continued to decline
11.
Briones Reservoir
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Briones Reservoir is an open cut terminal water storage reservoir located in western Contra Costa County, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, California. It is owned and operated by the East Bay Municipal Utility District, the reservoir is in the Briones Hills, on the west side of Briones Regional Park and northeast of Orinda. It is impounded by Briones Dam, a dam completed in 1964. The reservoir is the largest of EBMUD’s five East Bay terminal reservoirs, with a capacity of 60,510 acre·ft. The Briones Reservoir has two sources for its water, one local and one imported and its watershed of 22 km² includes the Bear Creek drainage. Bear Creek formerly flowed down the valley, which the reservoir partially submerges, the major water source into the Briones Reservoir is imported from the Briones Diversion Works near Orinda. It is delivered through the Briones Aqueduct, a 7-foot, 6-inch steel pipe and this is water imported from EDMUD’s biggest water source, the Mokelumne River in the San Joaquin Valley. Water then leaves Briones Reservoir and flows to the part of the valley. From there, the water is distributed by a plant in Kensington. Because the water in the reservoir is mainly for human potable water uses, fishing, swimming, and wading are not allowed. Two trails, the Bear Creek Trail and the Oursan Trail, the trailhead is at the Bear Creek Staging Area, which is within Briones Regional Park. A Trail Use Permit issued by EBMUD is required for all hikers, no mountain biking is permitted on the trail. Dogs are allowed on the Oursan Trail segment only, and must be leashed, Briones Reservoir and Briones Hills area List of dams and reservoirs in California List of lakes in the San Francisco Bay Area EBMUD—East Bay Municipal Utility District website EBMUD Trail Map. Archived from the original on 2013-03-03, EBMUD Trail Use Permit — online purchasing website
12.
Mount Diablo
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Mount Diablo is a mountain of the Diablo Range, in Contra Costa County of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California. It is south of Clayton and northeast of Danville and it is an isolated upthrust peak of 3,849 feet, visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area. The summit is accessible by foot, bicycle, or motor vehicle, Road access is via North Gate Road or South Gate Road. The peak is in Mount Diablo State Park, a park of about 20,000 acres. Preserved lands on and around Mount Diablo total more than 90,000 acres. The day use fee per vehicle for the park is by entrance way, $6 via Macedo Ranch or Mitchell Canyon, on a clear day the Sierra Nevada is plainly visible. The best views are after a storm, a snowy Sierra shows up better. Lassen Peak,181 miles away, is occasionally just visible over the curve of the earth, sentinel Dome in Yosemite National Park is visible, but Half Dome is hidden by the 8000-foot ridge at 37. 755N119. 6657W. Eight bridges are visible, from west to east, San Mateo, Bay, Golden Gate, San Rafael, Carquinez, Benicia, Antioch, claims that the mountains viewshed is the largest in the world—or second largest after Mount Kilimanjaro—are ill founded. It does boast one of the largest viewsheds in the Western United States, countless peaks in the state are taller, but Mount Diablo has a remarkable visual prominence for a mountain of such low elevation. The summit is used as the datum for land surveying in much of northern California. Mount Diablo is sacred to many California Native American peoples, according to Miwok mythology and Ohlone mythology, prior to European entry, the creation narrative varied among surrounding local groups. In one surviving fragment, Mount Diablo and Reeds Peak were surrounded by water. In another, Molok the Condor brought forth his grandson Wek-Wek the Falcon Hero, about 25 independent tribal groups with well-defined territories lived in the East Bay countryside surrounding the mountain. Their members spoke dialects of three languages, Ohlone, Bay Miwok, and Northern Valley Yokuts. The Chochenyo-speaking Ohlone from Mission San Jose and the East Bay area, called the mountain Tuyshtak, the Nisenan of the Sacramento Valley called it Sukkú Jaman, or as Nisenan elder Dalbert Castro once explained, the place where dogs came from in trade. A Southern Miwok name was Supemenenu and it has also been suggested that an early Indian name for the mountain is Kawukum or Kahwookum, but there is no evidence to confirm the assertion. It resurfaced as a real estate gimmick in 1916 with a new translation, Laughing Mountain
13.
Sacramento River
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The Sacramento River is the principal river of Northern California in the United States, and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for 400 miles before reaching the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, the Sacramento and its wide natural floodplain were once abundant in fish and other aquatic creatures, notably one of the southernmost large runs of chinook salmon in North America. For about 12,000 years, humans have depended on the vast natural resources of the watershed, the river has provided a route for trade and travel since ancient times. Hundreds of tribes sharing regional customs and traditions inhabited the Sacramento Valley, the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga named the river Rio de los Sacramentos in 1808, later shortened and anglicized into Sacramento. In the 19th century gold was discovered on a tributary of the Sacramento River, starting the California Gold Rush, overland trails such as the California Trail and Siskiyou Trail guided hundreds of thousands of people to the gold fields. By the late part of the mining had ceased to be a major part of the economy. Many populous communities were established along the Sacramento River, including the capital of Sacramento. Intensive agriculture and mining contributed to pollution in the Sacramento River, since the 1950s the watershed has been intensely developed for water supply and the generation of hydroelectric power. Today, large dams impound the river and almost all of its major tributaries, the Sacramento is used heavily for irrigation and serves much of Central and Southern California through the canals of giant state and federal water projects. The Sacramento River originates in the mountains and plateaus of far northern California as three major waterways that flow into Shasta Lake, the Upper Sacramento River, McCloud River and Pit River. The Upper Sacramento begins near Mount Shasta, at the confluence of North, Middle and it flows east into a small reservoir, Lake Siskiyou, before turning south. The river flows through a canyon for about 60 miles, past Dunsmuir and Castella, the Pit River, by far the largest of the three, begins in Modoc County in the northeastern corner of California. Draining a vast and remote volcanic highlands area, it flows southwest for nearly 300 miles before emptying into Shasta Lake near Montgomery Creek, Goose Lake, straddling the Oregon–California border, occasionally overflows into the Pit River during wet years, although this has not happened since 1881. The Goose Lake watershed is the part of the Sacramento River basin extending into another state. Unlike most California rivers, the Pit and the McCloud Rivers are predominantly spring-fed, ensuring a large, at the lower end of Shasta Lake is Shasta Dam, which impounds the Sacramento River for flood control, irrigation and hydropower generation. Before the construction of Shasta Dam the McCloud River emptied into the Pit River, the Pit River Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 and the Union Pacific Railroad over the reservoir, is structurally the highest double-decked bridge in the United States. The Upper Sacramento River canyon also provides the route for I-5, below Shasta Dam the Sacramento River enters the foothills region of the northern Sacramento Valley. It flows through Keswick Dam, where it receives about 1,200,000 acre feet of water per year diverted from the Trinity River and it then swings east through Redding, the largest city of the Shasta Cascade region, and turns southeast, entering Tehama County
14.
Berkeley Hills
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The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the Contra Costa Range/Hills, but with the establishment of Berkeley and the University of California, the Berkeley Hills are bounded by the major Hayward Fault along their western base, and the minor Wildcat fault on their eastern side. The highest peaks are Vollmer Peak, Grizzly Peak and Round Top, an extinct volcano, Vollmer Peak was named for the first police chief of the City of Berkeley, August Vollmer. It was formerly known as Bald Peak, from the top on a clear winter day Davis, Sacramento and the snowy Sierra are visible. Much of the west slope of the Berkeley Hills has residential neighborhoods of single family homes. Most streets are narrow and tend to follow the contours of the land, other roads to the ridgeline wind their way up the canyons. Grizzly Peak and Skyline Blvds follow the top of the ridge, the east slope of the Berkeley Hills is mostly preserved or partially developed wildland, much of it owned by the East Bay Regional Park District and the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve, and Temescal Regional Park are lower on the western slopes while Las Trampas Regional Wilderness is lower on the slope above Danville. The Berkeley Hills are pierced by several tunnels, two are aqueducts of EBMUD, the Berkeley Hills Tunnel serves the Pittsburg/Bay Point–SFO/Millbrae line of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. The four bores of the Caldecott Tunnel carry State Highway 24 between Oakland and Contra Costa County and it is common to hear the term, Oakland Hills to refer to that section of the Berkeley Hills that runs along the east side of Oakland. In colloquial usage, the Oakland hills are south of Claremont Avenue or Highway 24, as a proper name or recognized toponym, it is technically incorrect. When used on maps, the south end of the Berkeley Hills is unclear. It does not, in any case, correspond to any political boundaries, the ridge extends south through Oakland and San Leandro to the drainage of San Leandro Creek called Castro Valley, and geologically, continues southward above the line of the Hayward Fault. In the section above East Oakland to Castro Valley, the ridge appears on most maps as the San Leandro Hills, the eastern slopes of the Berkeley Hills lie entirely outside of the city of Berkeley within Contra Costa County. Another common usage is East Bay Hills, but its application to any particular range is unclear and it may refer to all of the ranges east of the Bay, from the Berkeley Hills to the Diablo Range and all the ranges between. The Berkeley Hills affect the climate by their elevation. The oceanic marine layer, which develops during the summer, bringing fog and low clouds with it, is less than 2,000 feet deep. This produces a fog shadow effect to the east, which is warmer than areas west of the hills, especially cold storms occasionally deposit wet snow on the peaks
15.
Mt. Tamalpais
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Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park, the Marin Municipal Water District watershed. Mount Tamalpais is the highest peak in the Marin Hills, which are part of the Northern California Coast Ranges, the elevation at the West Peak, its highest point, where a radar dome currently stands, is at about 2,576 feet. It stood over 2,600 feet before the summit was flattened for the dome construction. The East Peak, the second highest peak, is 2,572 feet. The mountain is visible from the city of San Francisco. The majority of the mountain is contained in protected public lands, including Mount Tamalpais State Park, Muir Woods National Monument, and it adjoins the Golden Gate National Recreation Area as well as several Marin County Open Space Preserves. This provides nearly 40 miles of publicly accessible open space. Some of the slopes of Mount Tamalpais fall within several cities and unincorporated communities of Marin County, including Mill Valley, Tamalpais-Homestead Valley, Stinson Beach. These areas are developed, consisting of mostly low-density single-family homes. In 2004 it was suggested by a team of Penn State geoscientists that a blind thrust fault, like the one caused the infamous Northridge earthquake. This idea was based on the steepness of Mount Tamalpais and of nearby Bolinas Ridge. Major Mount Tamalpais rockforms include serpentine, particularly evident in outcroppings near the summit, a number of serpentine endemic plants grow in the serpentine soils in this part of the mountain. The steep southeastern slopes of Mount Tamalpais drain to Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio, annual precipitation around Mount Tamalpais varies greatly from around 27. 5–31.5 inches in the drier, eastern foothills to about 59 inches near the Bolinas Ridge, close to the Pacific Ocean. The same fact holds for the steep, south-facing bowl canyon that Muir Woods is located in, as in San Francisco, most of the annual precipitation falls during the winter months. During cold, wet winter storms, the mountain also regularly gets some snowfall, sometimes as much as 6 inches overnight, as observed in February 2001, March 2006, and February 2011. The region sometimes gets hit with strong Pacific storms that may topple trees, and bring hurricane-force winds to exposed, barren areas like the Bolinas Ridge and the summit of Mount Tamalpais. In contrast, the foothills, sheltered from the oceanic breezes and fog, are drier
16.
Mountain biking
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Mountain biking is the sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially designed mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability, Mountain biking can generally be broken down into multiple categories, cross country, trail riding, all mountain, downhill, freeride and dirt jumping. However, the majority of mountain biking falls into the categories of Trail and this individual sport requires endurance, core strength and balance, bike handling skills, and self-reliance. Advanced riders pursue both steep technical descents and high incline climbs, in the case of freeriding, downhilling, and dirt jumping, aerial manoeuvres are performed off both natural features and specially constructed jumps and ramps. Mountain biking can be performed almost anywhere from a yard to a gravel road. There are aspects of mountain biking that are similar to trail running than regular bicycling. Because riders are often far from civilization, there is an ethic of self-reliance in the sport. Riders learn to repair their broken bikes or flat tires to avoid being stranded miles from help, club rides and other forms of group rides are common, especially on longer treks. A combination sport named mountain bike orienteering adds the skill of map navigation to mountain biking, one of the first examples of bicycles modified specifically for off-road use is the expedition of Buffalo Soldiers from Missoula, Montana to Yellowstone in August 1896. The Swiss military had its first bike regiment in 1891, bicycles were ridden off-road by road racing cyclists who used cyclo-cross as a means of keeping fit during the winter. Cyclo-cross eventually became a sport in its own right in the 1940s, the Rough Stuff Fellowship was established in 1955 by off-road cyclists in the United Kingdom. In Oregon, one Chemeketan club member, D. Gwynn and he named it a mountain bicycle for its intended place of use. This may be the first use of that name, in England in 1968, Geoff Apps, a motorbike trials rider, began experimenting with off-road bicycle designs. By 1979 he had developed a custom built lightweight bicycle which was suited to the wet. They were designed around 2 inch x 650b Nokian snow tyres though a 700x47c version was also produced and these were sold under the Cleland Cycles brand until late 1984. Bikes based on the Cleland design were sold by English Cycles. There were several groups of riders in different areas of the U. S. A. who can make valid claims to playing a part in the birth of the sport. Riders in Crested Butte, Colorado and Cupertino, California tinkered with bikes, at the time, there were no mountain bikes
17.
Ranchos of California
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The Spanish and later Mexican governments encouraged settlement of Alta California by giving prominent men large land grants called ranchos, usually two or more square leagues. Land-grant titles were government-issued, permanent, unencumbered property-ownership rights to land called ranchos, devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves after the landed gentry of Spain. Their workers included Californian Native Americans who had learned to speak Spanish, Spain made about 30 grants between 1784 and 1821, and Mexico granted about 270 more between 1833 and 1846. The ranchos established land-use patterns and place names that are still in use in California today, Rancho boundaries became the basis for Californias land survey system, and can still be found on modern maps and land titles. Ranchos were partially based on geography, such as access to river water, Land development in the 20th and 21st century often follow the boundaries of the ranchos, and often retain the original name. For example, Rancho San Diego, an unincorporated rural-burb east of San Diego, or Rancho Bernardo, during Spanish rule, the ranchos were concessions from the Spanish crown, permitting settlement and granting grazing rights on specific tracts of land, while the crown retained the title. The land concessions were usually measured in leagues, a league of land would encompass a square that is one Spanish league on each side – approximately 4,428 acres. The Spanish and Mexican governments made a number of grants from 1785 to 1846. It was not until the Mexican era that the titles to the plots of land were granted to individuals, in 1821, Mexico achieved its independence from Spain, and California came under control of the Mexican government. The 1824 Mexican Colony Law established rules for petitioning for land grants in California, and by 1828, the Acts sought to break the land monopoly of the missions and also paved the way for luring additional settlers to California by making land grants easier to obtain. Secularization was implemented between 1834 and 1836, the Mexican government allowed the padres to keep only the church, priests quarters and priests garden. The army troops guarding each Mission were dismissed, a commissioner would oversee the missions crops and herds, while the land was divided up as communal pasture, a town plot, and individual plots for each Indian family. The Mission Indians, freed from the missions, often joined other tribes or sought work on the new ranchos along the troops formerly assigned to each mission. The number of Mexican land grants greatly increased after the secularization of the missions in 1834, the Mexican rancho grants were provisional. The boundaries, on paper, had to be surveyed and marked. This produced a diseño, a topological map, to define the area. Since there were very few surveyors this requirement was seldom met, the grantee could not initially subdivide or rent out the land. The land had to be used for grazing or cultivated, some kind of residential house had to be built within a year—most were initially simple adobe walled cabins
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History of San Jose, California
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For thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers, the area now known as San Jose was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. Don Pedro Fages, the governor at Monterey, passed through the area on his 1770 and 1772 expeditions to explore the East Bay. Late in 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led the first overland expedition to bring colonists from New Spain to California and he left the colonists at Monterey in 1776, and explored north with a small group. Anza returned to Mexico City before any of the settlements were actually founded, el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe was founded by José Joaquín Moraga on November 29,1777, the first pueblo-town not associated with a mission or a military post in upper Las Californias. The town was founded by the colonists led to California by Anza, as a community to provide food for the presidios of San Francisco. In 1778, the pueblo had a population of 68, in the ensuing years a number of Mexican Rancho Land Grants Land Grants were confirmed within the lands now considered San Jose. During the Bear Flag Revolt, Captain Thomas Fallon led a force from Santa Cruz. Fallon would later become the mayor of San Jose. Its unclear whether or not Fallon ordered all townspeople of Spanish/Mexican origin out of San Jose, during the California Gold Rush period, the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines just south of the city were the largest mercury mines in North America. Mining operations began in 1847 at what was the first operating mine in the province, the importance of the mercury industry at the time explains why the local newspaper is named the Mercury News. On March 27,1850, San Jose became the first incorporated city in the U. S. state of California, the first mayor was Josiah Belden. It also served as the states first capital with the first and second sessions of the California Legislature, known as the Legislature of a Thousand Drinks, from 1858 to 1861, San Jose was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail stage line. In 1881, because of a campaign by editor J. J. It didnt provide sufficient illumination, and by 1884 was used only for ceremonial purposes and it collapsed during the great gale of 1915. In 1989, an informal Court of Historical Inquiry looked into the issue of whether the Eiffel Tower was an infringement of the Electric Light Tower. Before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Winchester Mystery House reached a height of 7 stories, many visitors to the house claim to have felt the presence of ghosts, while others claim there is no detectable presence. In 1909, Dr. Charles Herrold began experimental broadcasts in downtown San Jose. His station was licensed in 1921 as KQW, then moved to San Francisco
19.
Drainage basin
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A drainage basin or catchment area is any area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water. Drainage basins connect into other drainage basins at elevations in a hierarchical pattern, with smaller sub-drainage basins. Other terms used to describe drainage basins are catchment, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin and water basin. In closed drainage basins the water converges to a point inside the basin, known as a sink, which may be a permanent lake. The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the covered by the basin. Each drainage basin is separated topographically from adjacent basins by a perimeter, drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units, which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system. Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks, in a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. Drainage basins of the oceans and seas of the world. Grey areas are endorheic basins that do not drain to the oceans, the following is a list of the major ocean basins, About 48. 7% of the worlds land drains to the Atlantic Ocean. The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic, The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U. S. The Mediterranean Sea basin includes much of North Africa, east-central Africa, Southern, Central, and Eastern Europe, Turkey, and the areas of Israel, Lebanon. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Oceans drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earths land. It drains the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, the Indian subcontinent, Burma, antarctica comprises approximately eight percent of the Earths land. The five largest river basins, from largest to smallest, are the basins of the Amazon, the Río de la Plata, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. The three rivers that drain the most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganga, endorheic drainage basins are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Around 18% of all land drains to endorheic lakes or seas or sinks, the largest of these consists of much of the interior of Asia, which drains into the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, and numerous smaller lakes. Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, in endorheic bodies of standing water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this is the Dead Sea, drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important
20.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
21.
Alvarado Park
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Alvarado Park is a subsection of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park in Richmond, California and is a National Historic Place. It is located at the mouth of Wildcat Canyon is the Alvarado Park section, between 1909 and 1923, Alvarado Park was a private park that was owned and operated by local residents. In 1923, it was donated to the city of Richmond, later it was admitted into the East Bay Regional Park District. Then, in 1985, it was incorporated into Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, in its early years, Alvarado Park was served by its own streetcar line from the East Shore and Suburban Railway, a Key System precursor, which was later discontinued. The park district made certain improvements including a new play area, conversion of parking into meadows. It was also the home of the Grande Vista Sanitarium, later known as Belgum Sanitarium, though the associated buildings have since burned to the ground, their foundations and the surrounding grounds, including an orchard remain. The park also features distinctive and noted stone masonry, retaining walls, the lampposts are no longer lit. A stonework bridge spans Wildcat Creek in the main entrance. The park district is currently struggling to return the river to a natural state in hopes of restoring its fish population. The park also featured an open-air pavilion dance hall which was converted to a roller rink, National Register of Historic Places listings in Contra Costa County, California
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Anthony Chabot Regional Park
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Anthony Chabot Regional Park is a regional park in Oakland, California in the United States. It covers 5,067 acres in the San Leandro Hills adjacent to Oakland and it is part of the East Bay Regional Park District system. The terrain of the park is steep, consisting of grasslands, chaparral. The park is adjacent to Lake Chabot Regional Park, Redwood Regional Park, Dunsmuir Ridge Open Space, there are trails for hiking, horseback riding, and cycling that connect to other regional parks. Trailheads are located along Redwood Road and Skyline Boulevard in Oakland, the park houses two equestrian centers for private horse boarding and lessons, Chabot Equestrian Center and Skyline Ranch Equestrian Center. A marksmanship range was operated within the park by the non-profit Chabot Gun Club, the range closed in 2016, after operating 53 years, due to pollution problems caused by shell casings. Redwood Canyon Public Golf Course, a marina with rental boats, camping is a major activity in the park with a 75 campsite family campground and seven group camps. Anthony Chabot Family Campground is open year-round and features 53 drive-to tent campsites,10 walk-to tent campsites, some campsites offer views overlooking Lake Chabot. The parks seven group campsites are for groups ranging in size from 11 to 300 campers, Bort Meadow Group Camp, with a capacity of 300, also allows equestrian camping. Anthony Chabot Regional Park opened in 1952 as Grass Valley Regional Park, originally named for the dominant geographic feature of the part of the park. In 1965 the park was renamed in honor of Anthony Chabot, the lands that make up the park were originally ancestral land of the Jalquin, an Ohlone and Bay Miwok speaking tribe. The lands were divided by the Mexican land grants in the 1840s, the portion of the park to Rancho San Lorenzo. In the 1860s American settlers ranched the area including the 525-acre Grass Valley Ranch located in the area that is today Bort Meadow, cattle grazing continues in Grass Valley in modern times. Extensive coast redwood logging occurred in Anthony Chabot Regional Park and neighboring Redwood Regional Park from the late 1800s to early 1900s, while all the coast redwoods in Anthony Chabot Regional Park were logged, many regrowth trees are over 100 years old. Various water companies, predecessors to the East Bay Municipal Utility District, beginning around 1910, the water companies were responsible for planting the large eucalyptus plantations that are still a dominant feature in the park. Some water company land was leased to ranchers in the 1900s, including the family of Manuel Maciel, the Maciel family, ranched the land in the area that is now the Anthony Chabot Family Campground and marksmanship range. The main access road to these facilities is named Marciel Road in the familys honor, in the area of Big Bear Staging Area along Redwood Road was the Big Bear Tavern. While no traces remain, this was the site began the traditional jazz revival
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Coyote Hills Regional Park
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Coyote Hills Regional Park is a regional park encompassing nearly 978 acres of land and administered by the East Bay Regional Park District. The park, which was dedicated to use in 1967, is located in Fremont, California. In addition to the hills themselves, the park encloses an area of wetlands. There are a number of sites within the park, preserving evidence of habitation by Native Americans of the Ohlone group of tribes. Access to these sites is not allowed for visitors. There is a network of hiking trails in the park, most of them also available to equestrians. Most of the trails are wide fireroads that go around the hills and the marshes, there are few narrow trails which are off limits to bikers and equestrians. These trails connect to others in the east bay, and the San Francisco Bay Trail passes through the park, cross country meets for local schools are held occasionally in the park. The waters to the south and west of the park part of the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Coyote Hills is home to the remnants of a large Project Nike missile base and it has intact facilities that are in disrepair and some still in place are used as radio transmission & microwave antenna stations. Guard stations are still visible throughout the park, a firing range and aquifer exist on the southernmost hills. The East Bay areas original inhabitants were the ancestors of the Ohlone Indians, at Coyote Hills Regional Park, some of this rich wetland is preserved, along with 2, 000-year-old Tuibun Ohlone Indian shellmound sites. Programs at the main shellmound site allow visitors to see a reconstructed tule house, shade shelter, pit house, large collection of photos and trail descriptions of Coyote Hills Coyote Hills official website Coyote Hills Trail Map
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Del Valle Regional Park
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Del Valle Regional Park is a park of the East Bay Regional Park District in unincorporated Alameda County, California, south of the city of Livermore. The park is 4,316 acres big, the park largely surrounds Lake Del Valle, an artificial reservoir made from the damming of Arroyo Valle, a small river. The lake provides a source of recreation for visitors including swimming, fishing, there are lifeguards present at designated swimming areas. The park also offers 28 miles of hiking, horseback, and bicycle trails, there are many prominent and locally famous cliffjumping locations around the lake including The Rock, The Swallow Bay Cliff, and The Pillars. All can be accessed through various trails surrounding the park, the park can be approached from Mines or Arroyo Road, where the parking meter is often broken. Del Valle Park at the EBRPD website
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Garin Regional Park
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Garin Regional Park is a regional park located in Hayward, California, that is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system. It shares a border with sister park Dry Creek Pioneer Regional Park. The park is the site of the former Garin Ranch, sold by Andrew J. Garin to the district in 1966, Ukraina Honcharenko, the former homestead of Ukrainian political émigré Agapius Honcharenko and a California Historical Landmark, is located in the park. The park is situated behind the California State University, East Bay campus, summits in the park reach as high as 1,500 feet. Among the maintained trails, Garin Regional Park features several fenced off abandoned trails, the park is used by the Hayward Area Athletic League as a high-school cross-country course. It is considered the course of Moreau Catholic High School. Due to the nature of the course race times are generally slower on this course than comparable distances elsewhere. The 2 and 3 mile trails that are used climb the hills at the front of the park, the entire San Francisco Bay can be viewed from the hills. The park contains a small apple orchard with heirloom varieties. The park hosts the Garin Apple Festival in late Summer, with apples available for tasting, Ukraina was the former home, and final resting place of Agapius Honcharenko and his wife, Albina. The site, located within Garin Regional Park and dedicated on May 15,1999, is listed on the California Historical Landmarks list, Honcharenko lived on the property, totaling 40 acres, for 43 years during the 19th and 20th century. In 1902, the property emerged as a commune when a group of Ukrainian Canadians moved to the area, the commune eventually dissolved due to management disagreements. Honcharenko went on to live on, work on, and own the property until his death in 1916, the property was then owned, until 1991, by the Meillke family. In 1991, the East Bay Regional Park District acquired the property and it took approximately 30 years for the property to be dedicated a historical landmark. This was primarily due to disagreements between the Russian American and Ukrainian American communities as to whom Honcharenko belonged to, eventually it was settled in the Ukrainian favor and the place was named Ukraina, by the Ukrainian American Honcharenko Committee. Today, the property consists of the gravesite of the Honcharenkos, the foundation of a coop. The grotto consists of a cave, six feet by three feet, that was cut out of a sandstone cliff. Wall paintings exist in the grotto, Honcharenkos house stood on site until the 1950s, when it was demolished by the Meillke family due to vandalism
26.
Lake Chabot Regional Park
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Lake Chabot Regional Park is a regional park located in the southern Berkeley Hills in Alameda County, California. It is part of the East Bay Regional Parks system, Lake Chabot is a reservoir located in the park. The dam and reservoirs water are part of the East Bay Municipal Utility District water system, official Lake Chabot Regional Park website EBMUD official website
27.
Middle Harbor Shoreline Park
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Middle Harbor Shoreline Park is located on San Francisco Bay and the Port of Oakland entrance channel, west of downtown Oakland, California It is operated by the East Bay Regional Parks District. The park is primarily on land that was the site of the Oakland Naval Supply Depot. The Naval Supply Depot closed in 1998 and the property was transferred to the Port of Oakland, the interlocking tower from the railroads pier has been moved and partially restored as a small commemorative museum. The land was redeveloped for the park from 2002 to 2004, redevelopment of the land included restoration of beaches and creation of a lagoon. The mast of the USS Oakland is displayed at the entrance of the park, East Bay Regional Parks District, official Middle Harbor Shoreline Park website Map, 37°48′21″N 122°19′27″W
28.
Redwood Regional Park
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Redwood Regional Park is a park of the East Bay Regional Parks District in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located in the hills east of Oakland, the park contains the largest remaining natural stand of coast redwood found in the East Bay. The park is part of a belt of coast redwood extending south to Leona Canyon Regional Open Space Preserve. Redwood forests are commonly found closer to the coast where the air is cool. In the Bay Area, such forests are found in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the unique geographical circumstances of the redwood forest in Redwood Regional Park create coastal conditions. Winds funneled through the Golden Gate flow directly across the Bay and are channeled into the valley in which the Montclair District of Oakland is situated. This valley is also well-watered all year round and is protected from extremes of temperature, up to the middle of the 19th century, the bulk of the redwood forest lay in the Redwood Creek valley, with extensions to the surrounding ridges. In 1826 British navy captain Frederick William Beechey used the Navigation Trees, however, logging from 1845 to 1860 wiped out the original trees, leaving only their stumps. A second logging occurred after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, in this instance the second growth redwoods as well as the stumps from the first generation trees were logged, the site of which is registered as California Historical Landmark #962. The redwoods contained in todays park are third-growth trees, many of which are over 100 years old. Redwood Regional Park official web page Redwood Regional full trail map
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Temescal Regional Recreational Area
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Temescal Regional Park, formerly Lake Temescal Regional Park, is a regional park in the Berkeley Hills, in northeastern Oakland, California. Lake Temescal is the attraction in the park. It also has trails, picnic areas, forest habitats, the park is part of the East Bay Regional Park District—EBRPD
30.
Tilden Regional Park
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Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden /ˈtɪldən/, is a 2, 079-acre regional park in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo Ridge, the park is managed by the East Bay Regional Park District, created from the first land the District purchased in 1936. Tilden Regional Park was named in honor of Charles Lee Tilden, Tilden Park is largely located within unincorporated areas of Contra Costa County, while parts of the park are within the cities of Oakland and Berkeley. Its steep valleys and dense stands of timber offer a rare wilderness experience so close to the city and its high ridges and peaks give wide views over the San Francisco Bay and inland across other preserved land to Mount Diablo. The eastern limit of the park is approximately at the crest of the San Pablo Ridge, the western boundary nearly follows the crest of the Berkeley Hills. Parts of the land had previously been cleared for agricultural use. In many places, exotic trees such as eucalyptus have been planted, there are also some relatively recently planted stands of giant sequoia. However, current conservation efforts are aimed at restoring native vegetation as much as possible, the East Bay Regional Parks District uses grazing as a means of vegetation reduction, with a herd of goats grazing each summer in Tilden. AC Transit bus line 67 from the Berkeley BART station runs into the park on weekends, the bus line stops at the Tilden Nature Area/Little Farm, Lone Oak Road, Lake Anza/Merry-Go-Round, and the Brazilian Room/Botanic Garden before returning to Berkeley. Prior to being a park, the lands that are now Tilden Park were ancestral lands of Ohlone Indians. Spanish explorers and Mexican ranchos drove the Ohlone off the land as ranching became the dominant activity in Wildcat Canyon, american ranchers of the late 1800s and early 1900s included the Curran family ranch and the Sweet Briar Dairy. The eucalyptus plantations within the park were planted around 1910 by Frank C, havens Eucalyptus, Mahogany, & Land Company. The first parkland was purchased by the East Bay Regional Park District from the East Bay Municipal Utility District on June 4,1936, the 2,162 acres purchased included land for Tilden Park, Lake Temescal and Robert Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve. Upper Wildcat Canyon was officially named Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park on July 16,1936. At the June 4,1936 board meeting of East Bay Regional Park District, the meeting that authorized the land purchase. In doing so, they met their matching fund obligation in order to qualify for $1 million in relief funds for park development. From 1935 to 1941 a Civilian Conservation Corps camp, Camp Wildcat Canyon was located in what is now the Tilden Nature Area, the CCC crews built much of the parks earlier infrastructure and features including roads, trails, bridges, picnic areas, and golf course. Works Progress Administration crews built the Lake Anza dam and stone buildings including restrooms, the original Lake Anza beach house, the aesthetic of the park today is directly derived from the original work performed by the CCC and WPA
31.
Wildcat Canyon Regional Park
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Wildcat Canyon Regional Park is a 2, 429-acre East Bay Regional Parks District park located within the city limits of Richmond in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It includes a portion of Wildcat Canyon as well as a portion of the adjoining San Pablo Ridge, the Spanish settled the general area and by 1840 had parceled the land for missions and cattle raising coming into conflict with the historical communal practices of the Native Americans. Juan Jose and Victor Castro were given rights to all vacant land in the area and they kept some valuable lands and gave much of the land over to municipal authorities for water usage. EBRPD announced on February 17,2014 that it had acquired 362 acres of woodland on the east side of Wildcat Canyon Regional Park, Wildcat has an abundance of wildlife both flora and fauna. There are Coast Live Oak, California Bay Laurel, Big leaf maple, Madrone, alder, willow, Dogwood, there are humid chaparrals made up of coyote brush, poison oak, elderberry, snowberry, bracken fern, and blackberry brambles. There are some grasses, but non-native species like rye, barley. With regards to life there are coyotes, foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, deer. Reptilian life includes gopher snakes, king snakes, western racers, garter snakes, rubber boas, in the skies red-tailed hawks, American kestrels, sharp shinned hawks, coopers hawks, crows, and turkey vultures fly and also great horned owls and many songbirds. Wildcat Creek Trail - Runs along Wildcat Creek from the Alvarado Park staging area in Richmond into Tilden Parks Nature Area, the Wildcat Park section measures 3.5 miles to the park border and continues for 1 mile to the Tilden Nature Area parking lot. The trail is wide and does not involve major elevation changes, the trails midpoint can be accessed via Rifle Range Road Trail accessed via Rifle Range Road in El Cerrito, California. Nimitz Way - Starting at Tilden Parks Inspiration Point, Nimitz Way is a paved trail that connects to Wildcat Canyon Park after 1.5 miles. The Wildcat section is 2.51 miles long and connects to San Pablo Ridge Trail, Nimitz Way is a popular, relatively easy trail with views of the San Francisco Bay to the west and EBMUD’s San Pablo & Briones Reservoirs and Mt. Diablo. Belgum Trail - Accessed from Wildcat Creek Trail about 0.5 miles from the Alvarado Park staging area, the trail provides excellent views of San Francisco Bay. The trail connects at its Southern terminus with Nimitz Way, alavarado Park, a National Historic Place is the northernmost portion of Wildcat Canyon. The two-mile section in Wildcat Canyon Regional Park was a Nike missile base which was decommissioned in the 1970s, today there are few signs of the missile silos and military housing that used to populate these hills. Wildcat Canyon Regional Park hosts cattle who graze the hills of the park under a program managed by the East Bay Regional Parks District. The park can be accessed via the entry points, The main entrance. The Clark Road entrance in the northernmost area of the park is accessed off of San Pablo Dam Road
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Big Break Regional Shoreline
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Big Break Regional Shoreline is a regional park in Oakley, Contra Costa County, northern California. It is a part of the East Bay Regional Park District system, the new visitor center opened in October 2012. The center includes a 1,200 square feet interactive map of the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta that shows visitors how water flows through the region, a 30-by-50 model of the delta is also located at the park, as well as restored wetlands. The park is named for a break in the system that flooded an asparagus farm between the San Joaquin River and Dutch Slough in 1928. The break formed a bay along the river, near the area where fresh water from the river mixes with salt water from San Francisco Bay. According to the East Bay Regional Parks District, Big Break Regional Shoreline provides habitat for at least 70 species of birds and several species of mammals. They include, Birds include black rail, northern harrier, white-tailed kite, yellow-breasted chat, great blue heron, great egret, snowy egret, green heron, mammals include beavers, muskrats, and river otters. Reptiles include western pond turtles, a California Species of Special Concern, the Delta Discovery Experience includes covered outdoor educational areas for explaining the ecosystems and wildlife of the Delta region. The park offers picnic areas and a small shaded amphitheater, fishing is a popular recreational activity. A100 feet -long fishing pier extends into the river from the park, the chief varieties of fish include largemouth bass, striped bass, white catfish, bluegill, sunfish and sturgeon. Fishermen must have a California fishing license, a beach launch is available for kayaks and canoes. Big Break is a terminus for Big Break Regional Trail and Marsh Creek Regional Trail, the Visitor center offers craft activities and programs every weekend. The park is open daily from sunrise to sunet, the Visitor Center is open Wednesday-Sunday, 10am to 4pm. The park is at 69 Big Break Road in Oakley and it can be reached by private vehicles from Main Street, and there is no fee for parking or admission. The park is wheelchair accessible. Dogs are permitted, except in marsh and wetland habitats in the park
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Brooks Island
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Brooks Island is a 75-acre, mostly flat strip of land extending from a round hill which peaks at 160 ft in San Francisco Bay, located just south of the Richmond Inner Harbor in Richmond, California. The rock that forms the peak of the island is radiolarian chert underlain by limestone. All these rocks are part of the Franciscan Assemblage, the range as Albany Hill,3 miles south. The main portion of the covers a area of approximately 47 acres. A short distance from the southwest coast of the island is Bird Rock or Bird Island. The sandspit that extends for two miles west of the main island formed along a breakwater that was installed in the 1920s to preserve a deepwater channel to the Richmond Inner Harbor. During the last ice age San Francisco Bay was a valley, as sea level rose, the valley was flooded and Brooks Island was cut off from the rest of the East Bay. Although the island is small, there is a permanent spring. The island hosts salt marshes, tidal flats and has a rise of 160 ft and it is home to many bird species, including herons and egrets, and provides their nesting sites. Some parts of the islands are off limits to visitors to protect nesting sites, other names for the island include, Isla de Cármen, Rocky Island, Bird Island, and Sheep Island. Brooks Island is a habitat for harbor seals that stop at the island from their nearby rookery on the Castro Rocks, the first archeological excavation on Brooks Island was conducted by Nels Nelson of UC Berkeley in 1907. Coles estimates that the Ohlone occupation of the site may date more than 3,000 years. His study found bones from cormorants, ducks and other waterbirds, marine mammal bones included harbor seals, sea lions, porpoises and whales. These early residents used atlatls and harpoons with bone points, even though the mound showed evidence of large catches of fish, especially herring, there were no fishhooks found, indicating that perhaps nets were used. Mollusks such as mussels, oysters, and clams were a portion of the diet. Coless research showed that the use of the island was stable over a long period, kent Lightfoot of UC Berkeley is reanalyzing Coless material to determine whether seasonal patterns can be identified. The latest carbon-14 date from the material is about 300 years ago. Juan Manuel de Ayala conducted the first nautical survey of San Francisco Bay in 1775, however, Spanish records from that period do not mention any settlement on the island
