The photo above from Mt. Diablo is a 4 X telephoto looking south toward the highest peak in the Santa Lucia coastal range.
Flying into the picture above out to the Big Sur area Junipero Serra peak.
If you have the Google Earth program on your
computer, you can click on the following link to go to the takeoff point for
that flight: Diablo-BigSur.
You can then start your flight by using the Google Earth Navigation control
at the top right hand side of the Google Earth View page, as described in the
“flying
peak to peak section” on the “Pano Vistas” page instructions.
To
begin your flight, place your cursor EXACTLY as indicated by the tip of the red
arrow in the inset to the right - precisely at the base of the fingers in the
hand symbol, and making sure that the light blue shaded area above the hand
symbol is pointing precisely vertical. Left click to begin your flight.
You will have to pause the flight motion occasionally by releasing the left
button on your mouse/keypad, to allow the incoming streaming data to refresh the
image.
The flyout above takes you from Mt. Diablo, along azimuth ( compass direction ) 167 degrees, out past the cities of Pleasanton 16 miles away; San Jose, 38 miles away; and Salinas, 84 ½ miles away. Your route then takes you over 1897 ft. el. Mt. Madonna and Hecker Pass on Hwy 152. Continuing South over Junipero Serra, the highest peak in the Santa Lucia range, you will fly off into the Pacific over the Piedras Blancas lighthouse on Hwy 1. That is 6 miles west of the Hearst Castle, 156 miles from Mt. Diablo. Click on the blue square at the left of the screen for an introduction to the Castle, which you can visit.
Vistas Southwest from Mt. Diablo
This wide angle panoramic view to the
West can be seen on an exhibit interpretive sign at a parking overlook along the
road, one mile west of and 1,000 feet below the 3849 ft. elevation summit of Mt.
Diablo. The point on the crest of
the Santa Cruz mountains, labeled on the left hand side of the sign is in the
area of 3791 ft. high Loma Prieta, 52 miles from Mt. Diablo summit. The point
labeled Coast Range, just left of the center of the sign, is 1994 ft. elevation
Scarper Peak, 35 ¼ miles from Mt. Diablo summit.
There is a computer generated diagrammatic profile of the
mountains that can be seen to the south of Mt. Diablo at this link: http://www.viewfinderpanoramas.org/panoramas/AME/Diablo-S.gif
This profile was designed to be
downloaded and printed so that you can take it to the lookout vista to identify
what you are seeing in the landscape around you. The different colors in the
profile were designed to show features at different distances.
The view east through the Golden Gate, over Mt. Diablo to the Sierra Nevada Range. This is the starting point of a flight which you can take from here via Google Earth. It takes you 250 miles from the Pacific coast, over Manteca in California's Central Valley, following CA Hwy 120 to Crane Flat lookout and Yosemite Valley; then over the crest of the Sierra Nevada's jagged and picturesque Ritter Range to Bald Mt. lookout and the two White Mt. overlooks in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest area. Crane Flat and Bald Mt. lookouts and the White Mt. overlooks are vistas you can also easily drive to following this route, and which can be seen in this website's pages which you can access through the links at the top of the page.
If you have Google Earth on your computer, clicking on the following link will take you to this viewpoint.
You can then begin your flight as explained in the instructions on the “Pano Vistas” page of this website.
The interpretive display sign above is located 2 tenths of a mile
along a level paved section of a trail that encircles Mt. Diablo, 150 ft. below
its summit. The trail is called the Mary Bowerman or Fire interpretive trail,
and takes off from the junction of the lower parking lot and the divided road to
the upper parking lot. There is a wooden observation platform with benches
there, and a 270 degree vista from the NW through North around to the SE can be
seen from the sign’s location.
Directly beyond the city of Fairfield, 26 miles away is
2819 ft. el. Mt. Vaca, 37 ¼ mi. from Mt. Diablo. The San Francisco TV station
KPIX has a small web cam view from that mountain at this link: http://cbs5.com/webcams/26.567212.html?wmid=4
Through the gap 5 degrees to the left of Mt. Vaca, and not
visible, is Lake Berryessa, 50 miles away. And beyond it, 3587 ft. el. Cold
Spring Mt. is visible 89.5 miles distant. You can drive up Interstate 5 to this
vista point, west on Ca. Hwy 20, then 10 miles north on Walker ridge, for a 360
degree view up to the Redding area and Mt. Shasta to the north; Clearlake, Mt.
Konocti and 7056 ft.el. Snow Mt. to the west; Sutter Buttes, the Sacramento
Valley and the transition of the Sierras to the Cascades to the east; and Mt.
Diablo to the south. You can then drive back east on Hwy 20 past Sutter Buttes
to Sierra Buttes, as described below.
Due North, the Mt. Diablo Meridian passes over Travis AFB
25 miles away, which is along Ca. Hwy 12 between Rio Vista and Fairfield. The
tops of the large windmills mark the route of this East-West road. This true
north compass heading parallels Interstate 505 on its left, and passes to the
right of Chico, Ca., 127 miles away up the Sacramento Valley.
The
snows of Mt. Lassen, 181 miles to the north, make it stand out from Mt. Diablo
on a clear winter day, 7 degrees to the right of the meridian. Mt. Shasta is 4
degrees to the left of the meridian 244 miles away. Continuing along the
direction of Mt. Diablo Meridian you traverse the crest of the Cascades – past
Crater Lake, Oregon, 350 miles distant; 11,239 ft. Mt. Hood, 516 miles away on
the Columbia river between Oregon and Washington; and over Washington State’s
14,410 ft. Mt. Rainier, 618 miles away, to 10,788 ft. Mt. Baker, 750 miles
distant, just south of the Canadian border.
Sierra Buttes, 8587 ft. el., 135 miles away can be easily
picked out with the naked eye, when visibility permits. You can drive on good
paved roads to the foot of this lookout tower by taking Interstate 5 north
from Sacramento, Ca, Hwy 20 east to Nevada City, and Ca. Hwy 49 north.
You will then have to hike in a couple of miles, climbing about 1500 ft. in
elevation to the tower, as described in this link: http://kevingong.com/Hiking/SierraButtes.html
There is a panoramic vista from this lookout can be found on our “pano
vistas” page.
9983 ft. el. Pyramid Peak 116 miles out is also easy to
identify due to it’s namesake shape at the end of a ridge that is usually snow
covered Fall to spring. It is just north of where Ca. Hwy 50 crosses the Sierras
and drops down into South Lake Tahoe.
Just left of where the picture reads “Sierra Nevadas”,
9332 ft.el. Mokelumne Pk., 129 miles away, is a prominent landmark that you
should also be able to pick out with the naked eye. You can get a good view of
this part of the Sierras from Leek Spring Hill Lookout.
13,053 ft. el. Mt. Dana, 146 mi. distant, is due east of
Mt. Diablo, in the Yosemite National Park area. It is just west of Tioga Pass
and along the Mt. Diablo base line east. You can fly out past it on the Google
Earth GoldenGate-White
Mt. link posted above on this page. To pick it out on the horizon,
sight over the north end of Clifton Court Forebay. A telephoto of the Mt.
Dana area of Yosemite is shown at the top of this website’s Diablo
Range page.
Using the link Diablo-Dixie,
you can fly northeast into the photo above via Google Earth, along compass
heading 36 degrees. This flight takes you out between the bridges shown above,
up the Sacramento and American Rivers to Folsom Lake 70 miles away. From there
you fly over 7841 ft. el. Red (
Signal ) Mt., 125 miles away, overlooking Interstate 80 at Cisco – the site of the first fire lookout in the
U.S., as described on the Red
Mt. Exhibit page of this website. From there you proceed to Beckwourth Pass,
164 miles from Mt. Diablo, which leads into the Sierra Valley west of Ca. Hwy
395. Just west of that pass you can drive north to 8323 ft. el. Dixie Mt.
Lookout for a wide ranging view east into Nevada; and north, west and south into
the California Eastern Sierra-Cascade Mts.
Southeast from Mt. Diablo, the link Diablo-San
Benito takes you out on azimuth 146 degrees over Livermore and Lake Del
Valle Canyon past 4089 ft. el. Mt. Eyler on the horizon. On the Google Earth
opening view for this link, the peak on the horizon in the upper left hand
corner is Mt. Oso, a CDF lookout, 39 miles distant. Closer in along that
direction is a blue Panoramio square marking Altamont pass, 17 miles way. Below
that, 2581 ft. el. Highland Peak, can be seen 7 ½ miles away. Flying over the
horizon on the link’s heading of 146 degrees, you cross over Pacheco Pass on
Hwy 152, 68 miles out, and 5241 ft. el. San Benito Mt. 125 miles away. This
flight path follows the crest of the Diablo Range, paralleling Interstate 5
about 15 miles to the east.