Oakland Geology

It’s been a while since I brought you a geology ramble — a no-car-needed hike that starts and ends at different places with public transit. Ramble number 7 connects Montclair and Orinda over the spine of the Oakland Hills. Three years ago, when I presented ramble #2 from Rockridge to Orinda, I said “I have a vague scheme for a southern route,” and this is that scheme fleshed out and walked both ways.

Here’s the 6.4-mile route superimposed on Google Maps. It climbs from about 600 feet elevation at either end to 1600 feet, in Sibley Regional Volcanic Preserve.

The route starts in Orinda, for reasons I’ll get to later. From the Orinda BART station, take the County Connection number 6 bus and get off at Woodland Road, across from St. John Orthodox Church. The first mile is a gentle downhill into the valley of Moraga Creek, on Woodland and then Valley View Drive. You’ll pass this hillside, which exposes lava of the Moraga Formation.

If you have the time and energy, this is an interesting exposure, but there’s a long walk ahead.

The road turns into Lost Valley Road as it turns right. Follow it to Edgewood Road. At the end of Edgewood is this gate leading to the open space of the Orinda Wilder development.

Go on in. The road straight ahead leads to the new homes of Orinda Wilder, but you’ll turn left, up the hill.

Two miles farther and 800 vertical feet up, there’s another gate at the boundary of Sibley. On the far side of the gate is a sign saying “private property.” That’s the sum total of the access restrictions along this ramble.

The full route takes you through 12 different geological map units, by my count.

They are the Mulholland Formation, Moraga Formation basalt (Tmb) and interbedded sedimentary rocks (Tms), the Siesta Formation (Tst), Orinda Formation (Tor), Claremont Shale (the golden stripe from corner to corner), Sobrante Formation (Tsm), the unnamed Eocene mudstone (Tes), the teeny, cryptic Paleocene sandstone (Ta), Redwood Canyon Formation (Kr), Shephard Creek Formation (Ksc), and the Oakland Conglomerate (green).

What particularly interested me about this hike was the stretch through the Siesta Formation and the Moraga Formation sediments, which aren’t exposed in Oakland proper.

The Siesta consists of fine-grained stuff: sand, silt, clay and some limestone. The limestone is what stands out, because it’s white.

Outcrops of the limestone aren’t obvious, but my little acid bottle always reveals it by the telltale fizz.

This large limestone boulder reveals a lot of broken-up structure, including some shale chunks mixed in. Landslides will do this to unlithified sediments — and around here, even 9-10 million years ago, that means earthquakes.

The Siesta also includes a little conglomerate, as seen in this roadside exposure, but in general the rock isn’t highly visible. It likes to turn back into dirt.

Farther up the road, the Moraga sediments show themselves as coarse sandstone, rough stuff that gathered around whenever the lavas weren’t erupting.

That little magenta bit brings me to the other scenery: it’s always more than rocks that brings me to these heights. In early summer it’s wildflowers.

And views.

And views of rocks.

By the time you’re on the ridgetop, you’re well into the volcanic rocks that Sibley is famous for. Look carefully and you may spot the mineral-filled lava bubbles called amygdules. (I left this one for you to find.)

The high point in Sibley is the midpoint of this ramble. It’s all downhill from here to Montclair (where you catch the “geologist’s express” 33 bus), heading south on Skyline and then following the route of my Shepherd Canyon circumambulation. Be sure to look back at that lovely ridge as you start down Skyline.

I’ll end this post with a big fat map showing the topographic contours, more road details, and mile markers.

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