Mt Diablo 2-11-19

This winter has been one of nearly daily rain, so when another one-day break was forecast, I was ready for another hike. Only five days after my last visit to Mt. Diablo, I went back again. It had snowed again up there, so I didn't want to deal with crowds at the summit. I decided to go to the north side of the mountain where I might at least get a view of the snow covered higher peaks. I was familiar with most of the main trails from the Mitchell Canyon entrance, but I had never hiked the Mitchell Rock Trail, so that was my destination.

First I had to deal with the very inconvenient system that they have there for parking. At a gate on the in-coming road, you need to take an envelope, fill in your information on it, and deposit it with $6.00 in a slot in a post. There is no place to park nearby while you are doing that, and if you don't have exact change and a pen to write with, you are out of luck. As previously, I drove on in and parked at the visitor center hoping that someone would be there to take my money, but there wasn't, and I had to drive back out to the gate again.

It was a nice day with blue sky and lots of puffy clouds, but cold. I wore my sweatshirt and big ski jacket for the whole hike. I started up the Oak Road and found it very muddy, but by using the roadsides my boots didn't get too wet. Soon I was heading up the mountainside on the Mitchell Rock Trail and mud wasn't a problem for the rest of the way. I had to jump off the trail while several teenage bike riders zoomed by. As I rounded the mountainside, Mitchell Rock came into view, a rounded dome sticking out over the canyon. A sign listed its elevation at just over 1000 ft. I had seen that my destination, Twin Peaks, was about 1700 ft., and the prospect of another 700 ft. of climbing was not welcome.

Mitchell Rock

On the Mitchell Rock Trail

I pushed on and the beauty of the changing terrain kept my mind off the difficulty. There were lots of moss-covered rocks, patches of grassland and chaparral, and pine forest. This small area is home to Coulter Pines, a species more common in southern California, but at the edge of its range here. Some of the trees along the trail are quite large, in contrast to the smaller Gray Pines which grow all over the mountain. After a few steep rocky patches, the trail reaches the top at Twin Peaks. I didn't see two obvious peaks there, but I had noticed two rocks sticking out when viewed from the trail below. Now for the first time, I was treated to a great view across the canyons to North Peak and the summit speckled with snow. The view west across Mitchell Canyon was quite impressive too. Looking south, the ridge continued up to Eagle Peak, another 600 ft. higher, but I had had my fill of climbing for the day.

North Peak and summit from Twin Peaks

View west from Twin Peaks

I headed left down the Eagle Peak Trail, steeply descending the chaparral covered east side of the ridge. It was becoming hard on my knees, and my legs were feeling a bit shaky. Maybe I'm getting too old for this kind of thing. Finally at the bottom, I followed the Coulter Pine Trail back to the muddy Oak Trail and the parking lot.

Looking back on it now, I think this was one of the best hikes I have done in a long time. It was strenuous, but not a great distance, and the variety of terrain, vegetation, and views made it a lot of fun.

3.8 miles, 1200 ft. climb