Oakland Geology

Lately I’ve been walking on the part of Oakland underlain by the large Pleistocene alluvial fan (see the city geologic map). As I go, I mentally map it into separate entities, and one of them is Haddon Hill, bounded by the lake, 580 and Park Boulevard. In the past I only saw the hill from the lake, as in this shot from New Year’s Day 2007.

The west face of the hill, seen here, is quite steep. The opposite side of the hill slopes more gently down to the valley of Park Boulevard, and then the opposite side of Park is also quite steep. That doesn’t seem to be a general pattern, but it is curious. The photo below is taken from across Park, at 7th Avenue and Ivy Drive, and looks up Spruce Street to the highest point on the hill, where the St. Vartan Armenian Church sits.

The elevation there is about 180 feet. That doesn’t sound like much, but the ground around it is low and it can feel like a trek on foot. The hilltop area has views much grander than you would think, but they’re hard to photograph.

The topo map shows that the hill extends across 580 a little bit, where Alma Place is. The real edge of the hill, then, would be Indian Gulch (Trestle Glen).

This entry was posted on 22 April 2012 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Oakland peaks, the Fan. 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.