About The Area

Climate

Contra Costa County has a mild and generally dry climate. In the winter, snow only falls at the
top of Mt. Diablo and some of the higher foothills. Very, very rarely, snow will fall in other
areas. Temperatures almost never go below freezing during the winter. Summers are not too
hot with comfortable humidity. Rainfall usually totals around 30 inches per year.

History

Contra Costa County was one of the original 27 counties in California when it was incorporated
in 1850. The county seat at the time of incorporation was Martinez.

Mt. Diablo

Mount Diablo is a mountain in Contra Costa County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area,
located south of the town of Clayton and northeast of Danville. It is an isolated 3,849 feet
(1,173 m) upthrust peak that is visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area and much of
northern California. Mount Diablo appears from many angles to be a double pyramid and
includes many subsidiary peaks, the largest and closest of which is the other half of the
double pyramid, North Peak, nearly as high in elevation at 3,557 feet (1,084 m).

The peak is the centerpiece of Mount Diablo State Park, a state park of approximately 20,000
acres (80 km�) in area. The park was the first public open space of a complex -- according to
Save Mount Diablo -- now including 38 preserves, including adjacent and nearby city open
spaces, regional parks, watersheds, etc., buffered in some areas with private lands protected
with conservation easements. Preserved lands on and around Mount Diablo total more than
90,000 acres (360 km�).

Except for distant views from the Central Valley, Mt. Diablo's northwestern double pyramid
view is most familiar to California residents. This view however includes a minor part of the
mountain's acreage, most of which stretches east and southeast from the summit through
Altamont Pass to the rest of the northern Diablo range.

Size: 733 Square miles
Mean Household Income: $79,000
Median home price: $275,000

Location

As part of the San Francisco Bay metropolitan area,
Contra Costa County extends from the northeastern
shore of the bay about 50 miles east to San Joaquin
County. The border on the south and west is Alameda
County. The northern border is Suisun and San Pablo
Bays. The county is surrounded on three sides by
water and is dominated by Mt. Diablo in its middle.