Mt Diablo Grand Loop Hike

Few weeks ago Anil and I went hiking in Mount Diablo State Park. We hiked "The Grand Loop" trail, which according to the park's website was supposed to be 7 miles round trip with 500-foot elevation gain. Soon we realized that the elevation change of the trail was actually ten times larger:

Mt. Diablo Hike

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The Grand Loop is formed by stitching together several trails and fire roads in a following order: Summit Trail, Juniper Trail, Deer Flat Road, Meridian Ridge Fire Road, Prospectors Gap Fire Road and North Peak Trail. This is how we hiked it, but I would actually recommend doing it in the opposite direction and starting with first going up on the North Peak Trail.

I would strongly recommend this hike to anybody. It is very pleasant (especially on a sunny weekday) and offers spectacular views of - and from - Mt Diablo in every direction. In fact we liked this hike and Mt Diablo so much that we decided that next time we would go there we would spend a night at the campground that we could enjoy views from the peak during the nighttime.

Mt Diablo offers stunning views in all directions:








Mt Diablo peak (on the left) and snow-capped Sierra's on the horizon:


Industrial East Bay:


Happy Monika at the end of the hike:


Are those cones so big or is Anil's head so small?


Golden Gate Bridge at sunset:


Downtown SF, Bay Bridge and Part of Golden Gate Bridge:


Downtown SF: