At 3,849 feet, Mt. Diablo is a molehill compared to the soaring Sierra Nevada. Yet its summit at the fringe of the San Francisco Bay Area offers some of California’s most expansive views.

Visitors can peer west to the Farallon Islands 25 miles off the Golden Gate, and east across the great Central Valley to the snow-covered peaks of the Sierra.

A myth has been repeated for decades that more of the earth’s surface can be seen from Mt. Diablo than any peak in the world.

Not true — Alaska’s Denali (formerly Mt. McKinley), for one, easily beats that claim. But Mt. Diablo is much easier to summit than such mountains. In light traffic, a motorist from San Francisco could drive right to the top in under two hours.

On a clear day, the Mt. Diablo State Park website contends, you can see more than 8,500 square miles and parts of 40 of California’s 58 counties.

Dan Stefanisko, supervising ranger at the park, said a crowd of people typically gathers at the summit around sunset to see the panorama bathed in gold.

“It’s spectacular,” he said.

Ideal viewing is in the winter or spring right after a storm has washed away the haze. After this week’s walloping of rain, this could be a moment.

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