Sunrise in the East Bay Hills
Anywhere else, people would call them mountains, but in California we call them hills.
When Salil Bhatt’s report of a sunrise walk in the East Bay Hills arrived, I had to smile. Not just because I love seeing reports of fall color that’s descended to sea level (Peak is now below 4,000′), but because Salil wrote, “I had gone for a sunrise hike last Saturday (Oct 29) on a local hilltop to catch the morning sun lighting up the hills …”
California has 352 mountain ranges and over 8,000 peaks. We call most of them hills. We reserve “mountains” for mounds greater than 2,000′. Those are the ones that really count. Mount Diablo, Mount Tamalpais, Mount Laguna, Mount Palomar, Mount Baldy. The Trinity Alps. The Cascades. The Sierra Nevada. The rest, well, they’re just hills.
Take the Berkeley Hills, for example. They top out at 1,906′. A 1,906′ peak would be the Everest of the midwest, were one there. In Berkeley, it’s just a hill.
Nonetheless, from California’s hills, one can see magnificence as Salil did. He wrote, “Seemingly, the grass has now gone from golden hues of summer to brown. And so, the colors aren’t as stark or spectacular. But what I did find on my way back, was a few Maple trees in the neighborhood had fully turned red.”
He returned two days later to get more pictures of urban forest color that is now appearing. “Most trees are still green, but a few cottonwood and sycamore have a tinge of yellow on them.”
What is showing color are the exotics … landscaped maple and Chinese pistache. They’re at peak carrying garnet foliage and fluorescent hot pink, ruby, carnelian, saffron, cantaloupe, and emerald.
November is the Bay Area’s month. The Livermore Valley, Danville, Walnut Creek, Burlingame, Atherton, San Leandro, San Rafael, Berkeley, Saratoga, Los Altos and Palo Alto are among the necklace of bay cities that will light up in coming weeks, and you won’t need to climb a mountain to see them. Just climb a hill.
- San Ramon and Diablo Valleys (486′) – Patchy (10-50%)
