TL;DR
In preparation for our Peru hike as well as Mt Whitney, we took on this leg burning 10 mile loop to Mt Olympia and the north Peak of Mt Diablo. With ~3000 feet of elevation gain and then loss it can be a real grind, but luckily the spring wildflowers and views of the bay area made up for it.
Thoughts :: March 2016
I grew up in Concord which sits at the base of Mt Diablo. Its loomed over me my entire life. I often take it for granted but its a pretty cool place to visit and camp at. Its the tallest geographical point in the Bay Area at 3,848 ft. During the winter, its not uncommon for it to get a dusting of snow. Spring brings wildflowers, green hills and waterfalls while summer is a scorching 100+ degrees F. Autumn welcomes a skin crawling tarantula migration. Pretty cool place.
Mt Diablo during the spring has a fleeting carpet of green grass and wildflowers. For a few brief months, everything looks fresh, and beautiful and full of life. Not to mention hiking is actually enjoyable as opposed to just tolerable in the summer heat. There are several long hikes in the Bay Area that make for a good training ground. I figure, why not do all of them? With 3000 feet of elevation gain over 5 miles it can be pretty brutal. The trail itself can be precariously steep at times. Nothing like a good steep loose gravel incline to make you wish for new hiking boots.
The loop goes almost bottom to top and back to bottom on Mt Diablo. The north peak is less than 100 ft short of the summit. The perk about this hike is that you don’t have to pay the gate fee or worry about getting trapped inside the park after sunset and having to drive around to south gate to exit. The hike starts from a trail head off Regency Dr, in the back of a neighborhood in Clayton. Enjoy the flat 2 mile start because its all uphill and downhill after that. From this trail you can turn off before going to Mt Olympia to see the waterfall although it’ll add some mileage. Most of this trail could be considered fire road but there are a few areas of narrow single track where you need to watch out for poison oak on both sides. It almost became something of an obstacle course trying to limbo and hop over branches.
I had never done Mt Diablo bottom to top before. And I actually hadn’t hiked there too often in the spring. Something about it being so close to home that made it seem not that special. However, there is something magical about Mt Diablo in the spring. The looming oak trees with their gnarled branches inspire thoughts of fairy tales and medieval forests. You half expect to see a dryad or perhaps maybe a lamppost. Mt Olympia overlooks the town of Clayton and further out, Bay Point, the delta, and the fields of windmills. When we got to Mt Olympia, there were scattered clouds and the temperature actually dropped a fair amount with the wind picking up. We broke for lunch and then continued on to North Peak.
North peak doesn’t feature anything special. Its slightly shorter than the main peak of Mt Diablo and hosts a variety of antennas and satellite dishes. It mainly just made us feel tired because we knew we now had to go back down.
Comments