Bay Area

Mount Umunhum

Early in the morning, a few friends and I went to Mount Umunhum to watch the sunrise. The drive up was windy and somewhat steep, but it was also fun. We reached the front gate around 6:30 AM, but found that the park was not yet open. Fortunately, a construction worker passed by and let us in. We went to the first viewpoint just in time for sunrise, which overlooks the hills to the east of the Bay Area.

After the first viewpoint there is a second set of gates that we had to wait to open. This led us to a second viewpoint, with a large building and parking lot. There were some construction workers renovating an old building. We asked them what they were doing, and they told us that Mount Umunhum was a base for a radar during the Cold War. The construction workers were stripping the paint which violated the health code, as it contained lead.