Mother's Trail, Mount Diablo State Park, March 2021 Rising more than 3,000 feet above the valley floor, Mount Diablo (3,849’) is perhaps the most iconic peak in the East Bay, a behemoth for which the broader Diablo Range—which extends around 200 miles south into central California—is named. Most visitors reach the peak by way of …
Continue reading Mount Diablo via Macedo Ranch (Mount Diablo State Park, CA)
Ridge Top Trail, Shell Ridge Open Space, February 2021 Winter and early spring is far and away the best time of year to hike in the East Bay, when temperatures are good and the rolling hillscapes—typically brown, dusty, and dry in summer—are lush and verdant. The jade-colored hues in springtime make the Diablo Foothills in …
Continue reading Ridge Top – Indian Creek Trail Loop (Shell Ridge Open Space, CA)
Beautiful loop hike in Diablo Foothills Regional Park, featuring rugged canyons, verdant hills, and shady ravines.
The East Bay, for all of its wonderful hiking, is not known for its waterfalls. Flowing streams, let alone tumbling cascades, are scarce amid the largely scrubby, chaparral hills that separate San Francisco Bay from California’s vast Central Valley. After springtime rains, however, there a handful of seasonal streams that come alive. One of the …
Continue reading Falls Trail Loop (Mount Diablo State Park, CA)
2019 has come and gone, and it was an excellent year for hiking. Over the course of the year, I added 43 posts to Live and Let Hike and notched nearly 150,000 site visits (81,000 visitors). As always, the travel was diverse, spanning hikes and scenic drives from 13 states (plus the District of Columbia), …
At 3,849 feet, Mount Diablo is one of the highest and most prominent peaks in the San Francisco Bay Area and perhaps the most well-known mountain in the East Bay. Taking its name from a linguistic accident in the early 19th century, this “Devil’s Mountain” makes for a very long and imposing climb for modern …
Continue reading Mount Diablo via Eagle Peak and Mitchell Canyon (Mount Diablo State Park, CA)
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