Diablo View Rd, Orinda

Located on the far eastern end of Orinda, right by the border with Lafayette, the appropriately named Diablo View is highly affluent woody hilltop neighborhood that offers views east towards Mt. Diablo and the privacy of secluded homes and curving hills. This is the kind of neighborhood that visitors have difficulty making their way through. GPS fails here on these winding roads and streets signs are difficult to make out. However, if you like to feel slightly away from it all while being less than a half hour away from SF, you have found your ideal home.

This section of Orinda is virtually equidistant from both Downtown Orinda and Downtown Lafayette, although it is technically part of Orinda. The majority of homes here date back either to the 50’s or the 70’s. As you might expect that means a fair number or large Ranch homes although you can also find some places with Tudor highlights. There are even some outright mansions in the area with the average home having more than 9 rooms.

This is a family neighborhood, of course, as most of Orinda is. The local elementary is either Glorietta on the other side of the freeway or Sleepy Hollow. Both are fantastic elementary schools, with Glorietta being perhaps the highest regarded of the elementaries in Orinda. In fact, the Orinda schools are widely regarded as being some of the best all the way through with students scoring consistently at the top tenth of California schools on standardized tests.

Of course, Orinda is no place for singles—not for meeting them anyway. Of course, you could come into Orinda and go to one of the restaurants or to the movie theater. There are not really any bars however if that is your scene. For that you either have to drop into the saloon in Lafayette or to head over to nearby Berkeley or Oakland.

In addition, like in many portions of Orinda, this is hillside living. That means that you have to worry about runoff during the rains and be on the watch out for mudslides. In the dry season, you need to worry about fires. Both of these require a bit of labor in terms of keeping slides from developing and in terms of clearing brush away from your home. Also, because you are so deep into the woods, you will find that you have certain non-human neighbors that will drop in every so often just to eat the flowers in your flower garden or spray your house when you try to scare them off.

Overall, this is yet another great, quiet Orinda neighborhood. Well worth a peek if you can afford it.