Wildcat Canyon is a narrow linear valley just east of the

Berkeley Hills The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills" (from the original Spanish ''Sierra de la ...

in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, situated in

Contra Costa County, California ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

. The canyon is bounded on its east side by the San Pablo Ridge, and is drained by Wildcat Creek which runs northwest to its outlet in

San Pablo Bay San Pablo Bay is a tidal estuary that forms the northern extension of San Francisco Bay in the East Bay and North Bay regions of the San Francisco Bay Area in northern California. Most of the Bay is shallow; however, there is a deep water c ...

. Two minor lakes or ponds lie along the creek:

Jewel Lake Jewel Lake is a former reservoir and artificial lake along Wildcat Creek, a small stream in Northern California in Tilden Regional Park.

and

Lake Anza Lake Anza is a recreational swimming reservoir, located within the Tilden Regional Park, in the Berkeley Hills above Berkeley, California. History The lake was created by the construction of the C L Tilden Park Dam in 1938. It was named by the ...

. The latter was enlarged by the construction of a small dam in the mid-20th century. An active tectonic fault, the Wildcat Fault, runs the length of the canyon. Wildcat Canyon was named for the

mountain lions The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large cat native to the Americas. Its range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere. ...

which used to be fairly common in the area. The southern end of the canyon adjacent to the city of

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California * George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer ...

was incorporated into

Tilden Regional Park Charles Lee Tilden Regional Park, also known as Tilden Park or Tilden, [], is a regional park in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. It is between the Berkeley Hills and San Pablo R ...

in the 1930s and remains a major recreation area for local residents. Another regional park,

Wildcat Canyon Regional Park Wildcat Canyon Regional Park is a East Bay Regional Parks District park bordering the city of Richmond in Contra Costa County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It includes a portion of Wildcat Canyon as well as a portion of the adjoin ...

, is situated at the northern end of the canyon.

External links

Pictures from Wildcat Canyon
Canyons and gorges of California Berkeley Hills Landforms of Contra Costa County, California Geography of Richmond, California {{ContraCostaCountyCA-geo-stub