Except for Kilimanjaro...

"Except for Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Diablo has the largest view in the world" or so the popular myth goes. At 3,849 feet (1,173 m) it is by no means the highest mountain in California, or even the San Francisco Bay Area. But it does have quite a commanding view. On clear days the visitor can see as far as Mt. Lassen over 170 miles (270 km) to the north. Its viewshed, however, is not even close to the second largest in the world.

Owing to its prominence, Mt. Diablo is the origin of the system of survey used for a large portion of California - The Mt. Diablo Base and Meridian. Since Mt. Diablo can be seen and recognized from such a large part of the state, it's a very useful landmark.

On this late spring day the air wasn't as clear as it can be following a winter storm and the view was considerably limited. But the visitor can see almost the entire San Francisco Bay and Delta. You can't quite make it out in this photo, but the city of San Francisco and the Golden Gate is between the two towers beyond the parking lot and Mt Tamalpais is visible just to the right of the tower beyond the cars. Panning right some more a quarry comes into view where rock used by CalTrans (California Department of Transportation) to build many of the roads in the area originates. Beyond the quarry is Suisun Bay with the US Navy "Mothball Fleet" where old ships go into storage to be dismantled and scrapped.

Not the most elevated place around, but a place of prominence and elevated importance due to its solitude.

Oh, and those black spots that you may see on the fullscreen version aren't spots on the lens, they're dragonflies: hundreds of them were buzzing the summit.

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USA-Canada / USA-California

Lat: 37° 52' 54.51" N
Long: 122° 55' 51.3" W

Elevation: 3,849 feet

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Hardware: Nikon D200, Nikkor 10.5mm Lens, "Monopod over-the-head" method
Software: PTGui/Mac, Photoshop CS2, CubicConverter