Mt. Diablo

Two weeks ago we had some friends come visit, Jake and Kelly Freeburg.  Jake’s brother lives in Dublin, CA and is reletivly close to us so we had the opportunity to hang out with them almost all weekend.  We sure had a blast hanging out with old friends in new territory.  One of my favorite parts of J&K’s trip was taking them to Mt. Diablo Saturday morning after Breakfast at the Rising Loafer (our fave b-fast joint in Danville).  We were lucky to have such an amazing day for our hike and it was refreshing to see such lush green in California since we don’t see it much!  Here are some pics from the afternoon:

A little more about the mountain (taken from Wikipedia): Mount Diablo is a mountain in Contra Costa County, California in the San Francisco Bay Area, located south of the town of Clayton and northeast of Danville. It is an isolated upthrust peak of 3,864 feet (1,178 m), visible from most of the San Francisco Bay Area and much of northern California. Mount Diablo appears from many angles to be a double pyramid and includes many subsidiary peaks, the largest and closest of which is the other half of the double pyramid, North Peak, nearly as high in elevation at 3,557 feet (1,084 m).
The peak is the centerpiece of Mount Diablo State Park, a state park of approximately 20,000 acres (8,000 ha) in area. The park was the first public open space of a complex—according to Save Mount Diablo—now including 38 preserves, including adjacent and nearby city open spaces, regional parks, watersheds, etc., buffered in some areas with private lands protected with conservation easements. Preserved lands on and around Mount Diablo total more than 90,000 acres (36,000 ha). The day use fee for Mount Diablo State Park is $10 per vehicle.[3]
Except for distant views from the Central Valley, Mount Diablo's northwestern double pyramid view is most familiar to California residents. This view however includes a minor part of the mountain's acreage, most of which stretches east and southeast from the summit through Altamont Pass to the rest of the northern Diablo range.