I headed south to visit my brother at his place east of San Francisco in Brentwood. On Saturday he agreed to join me on a short hike on the lower slopes of Mt. Diablo. Diablo is a 3849' peak with great prominence on all sides. It can be seen for many miles. There is a road to the top and several trails and non motorized gravel roads too. The route starting in Clayton is about 7.5 miles one way. My Diablo State Park includes 162 miles of trails. I have a lot to explore on future trips.

A half hour drive brought us to Clayton and the Mitchell Canyon Trailhead, elevation 590'. The gate opens at 8:00 am. We arrived at 8:35 am. The lot was rapidly filling. No surprise that this is a popular hiking spot. There are a maze of trails and they are well signed. We headed south a very short way to Oak Road and started climbing. The initial climb was very steep. Just the thing to warm you up.

Though the highs have been in the low/mid 80s, this day was the only cloudy one of my visit. It was noticeably cooler. I was not displeased. This area gets very brown in the summer but it was very very green at this time. Green grasses and green trees. The wildflower show also began at the bottom and continued all the way to our turnaround point. My brother does a lot of biking, swimming, and more level street walking but steep climbs on uneven trail were not in his recent activities. He did great though was a bit sore the next day.

I stopped often to photograph the wildflowers. Some, like red and orange Indian paintbrush, were very familiar. Others looked similar to Pacific Northwest wildflowers but were a little different. Some were completely alien to my experiences. Seeing new things is one of the best parts of hiking in new places.

One wildflower I first heard of just the day before is the Mt. Diablo globe lily aka Mt. Diablo fairy lantern. It only grows on and close by Mt. Diablo. In the first half mile of the trip I spied a small patch of them in full bloom. A very small plant with a big round yellow flower. An unexpected find.

After the steep short road climb we headed off on the Mitchell Rock Trail. It started out with a steep climb up the fall line then began a more gentle traverse. At a little under .75 we reached Mitchell Rock. The bump of Mitchell Rock is just off the trail. The elevation is 1080'. We stopped atop the rock for some photos. Soon we were back on our way.

There were more trees than I expected. Some were pine with very large cones on the ground. The trail had a few gravelly spots but for the most part the tread and traction were excellent. The green continued all the way up. So did the wildflowers. For the most part we climbed below the ridge with traverses and a few switchbacks. We climbed for about 1.2 miles from Mitchell Rock to Twin Peaks. That would be our destination for this day.

The high point was a very short scramble to 360 degree views. The elevation is 1733'. Eagle Peak, just a mile ahead, looks very close. The summit of Mt. Diablo looks a long way away. The views are very good. We took a break here before starting down.We saw several groups going up and down as we climbed. On the descent we saw quite a few more. The route is deservedly popular. Lots of folks but not overly crowded. The trail is narrow meaning someone must try to step off to allow passing. Even with all my photo stops we took about an hour to reach Twin Peaks. Going down was faster. We reached the bottom in 50 minutes. The parking lot was now about full. 

This was a fun short hike. Much more green than I expected. Many more wildflowers too. For the day we hiked about 4 miles with 1200' of elevation gain. Not big numbers but a very enjoyable hike.