Mount Diablo State Park is another East Bay gem that I'd love to show Mom and Dad Merschat (and Michael) next week. Although the air quality most days isn't clear enough (especially in the summer), Mt. Diablo has one of the largest viewsheds in the Western United States so you can see the Golden Gate on one side and the Sierra Nevadas on the other side. Plus it's a short trip from our house and the drive or hike up the mountain is always fun to do.
One of the things I truly miss about California is the Valley Oak. I love the way they speckle the hillsides and there definitely isn't a shortage of my favorite trees on Mt. Diablo.
If you want to see some great sunset photos and pictures of flora and fauna on Mt. Diablo, check out this guy's Flikr page.
I grew up thinking Mt. Diablo meant Devil's Mountain because it turns a deep red when the sun sets (that makes sense, right?). But according to the Save Mt. Diablo website, I was mistaken:
Like many other isolated peaks, Mount Diablo is steeped in lore -- much of it involving the mountain's name. The reference to "diablo" or devil can be traced back to 1805, when Spanish military troops searched for runaway mission Indians. At a willow thicket near present-day Buchanan Field in Concord, the soldiers encountered a camp of Chupcan people and surrounded it. During that night, the Indians escaped unseen and unheard.Hmmm... so interesting!
Angry and confused, the Spanish called the site, "Monte del Diablo", or "Thicket of the Devil". Later, English-speaking newcomers mistakenly assumed the word "monte" meant "mountain" and applied the title to the prominent nearby peak. A linguistic accident thus gave California its Devil Mountain.
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