Oakland Geology

For the best sense of an area’s geology you need to see it at as many scales as possible. I study this city from eye level and ground level, also by staring at maps. I climb its hills and go beyond its borders to survey it from a distance. If I had a light plane, I’d cruise all over from a thousand feet up. (In its absence, Google Earth and Google Maps are quite useful.)

Another of my practices is to climb parking structures. The views are always good, but nobody else does this—these buildings aren’t reaching their full potential! This shot is from the top of the Kaiser Hospital’s parking structure during a spectacular sunset in the winter of 2003. That’s Piedmont Avenue below. Round Top pokes above the large apartment building at center right. The knob at farthest left is now occupied by a very large house, looking down on the rest of the Hiller Highlands. Imagine having a public park bench up there.

This entry was posted on 29 October 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Oakland geology views, Oakland peaks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.