Contra Costa County
Pleasant Hill
Between Concord and Walnut Creek, with a college, a built-from-scratch downtown, and the Iron Horse Trail through it.
Contra Costa County
Walnut Creek
Two freeways, BART three blocks from downtown, and a ridge trail fifteen minutes east.
Photo: King of Hearts CC BY-SA 4.0
I-680 and CA-24 meet here, and that explains most of Walnut Creek. It is where central Contra Costa comes for dinner, a show, or a Saturday: a compact downtown with BART three blocks from the middle of it. Fifteen minutes east, a ridge trail looks back over the whole valley.
Why people move here
- BART is downtown, not stranded out by the freeway. Embarcadero in roughly 36 minutes, 12th Street Oakland in about 24.
- Broadway Plaza for the shopping and the Lesher Center for four theaters, both inside the same handful of blocks.
- Shell Ridge and Lime Ridge sit right at the edge of town and run into Diablo Foothills and up Mount Diablo. The Iron Horse Trail cuts straight through on the old rail line.
- Heather Farm and Civic Park carry most weekends, with The Ruth Bancroft Garden a few minutes north and worth the detour.
Neighborhoods
Northgate sits northeast toward the mountain — and it is Mt. Diablo Unified, not the Walnut Creek and Acalanes districts covering the rest of the city. That one catches people out. Walnut Heights is just south of downtown. Saranap, heading toward Lafayette, is county rather than city.
District lines do not follow city limits here, so it is worth checking for any specific address.
On the map
Where Walnut Creek sits
Map of the service area. The towns are linked below.
Nearby
Close to Walnut Creek
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Considering Walnut Creek?
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