Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)

Black Mountain
View of the Santa Cruz Mountains from the summit of Black Mountain on a cloudy day
Highest point
Elevation2,812 ft (857 m) NAVD 88[1]
Coordinates37°19′08″N 122°08′51″W / 37.318788108°N 122.147496339°W / 37.318788108; -122.147496339[1]
Geography
Map
LocationSanta Clara County, California
United States
Parent rangeSanta Cruz Mountains
Topo mapUSGS Mindego Hill

Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, and west of Cupertino; it is within the Palo Alto city limits though not near the developed part of the city.[2] It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in the former. Early Spanish explorers commonly named tree- or chaparral-covered summits which look black in the distance Loma Prieta, from the Spanish (loma-hill, prieta-dark).[3] The Spanish also called the middle portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains the Sierra Morena meaning (morena-brunette, sierra-mountain range), extending from Half Moon Bay Road (California State Route 92) south to a gap at Lexington Reservoir, and which includes a summit called Sierra Morena.[4][5][6] There are over 100 "Black Mountains" in California.[7]

  1. ^ a b "Black Mountain". NGS Data Sheet. National Geodetic Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States Department of Commerce.
  2. ^ "Comprehensive Plan - City of Palo Alto". www.cityofpaloalto.org. City of Palo Alto. Retrieved 16 July 2017.. In particular chapter 2, Land Use and Design Maps shows Black Mountain as within Palo Alto.
  3. ^ Geological Survey of California (1865). Geology, volume I Report of progress and synopsis of the field-work, from 1860 to 1864. London: Oxford University. p. 65. Retrieved 2009-12-15.
  4. ^ "Morena Sierra". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior.
  5. ^ John Hunter Thomas (1991). Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California A Manual of the Vascular Plants. Stanford University Press. p. 5. ISBN 978-0-8047-1862-2. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
  6. ^ Luther A. Ingersoll (1893). Henry D. Barrows (ed.). A memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of Central California. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 190. Retrieved 2010-10-25.
  7. ^ Erwin G. Gudde; William Bright (2004). California Place Names The Origin and Etymology of Current Geographical Names. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 37. ISBN 0-520-24217-3.