Hiking Mt. Diablo, part 2
Feb. 22nd, 2022 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerThe first leg of our hike around the summit of Mt. Diablo was fairly easy. (Read about it in part 1.) We still stopped for frequent breaks— to take pictures. As we turned to scramble up a primitive trail to the peak we stopped a few times to catch our breath... and to take more pictures from the ever changing perspectives the trail offered.
There were plenty of long-distance views as we climbed the last bit to the summit. Mt. Diablo's 3,849' (1,173 m) elevation isn't the highest in the Bay Area; peaks like Mt. Hamilton and Mt. St. Helena are a few hundred feet taller. But they're 40-50 miles away in opposite directions. If it were a clearer day we'd be able to see them. People have reported seeing as far as the Sierra Nevada and Mt. Lassen, the very southern end of the Cascade range, over 200 miles away on a clear day. The haze/smog limits visibility to about 15 miles here.
Atop the summit is a lookout tower with a signal light. This visit I learned that the "lighthouse" was not really for ships. It was built for aircraft. In the 1920s there was no electronic navigation. In 1928 a beacon light was erected here. After the attack on Pearl Harbor it was turned off for fear it would guide an enemy in attacking San Francisco. By the time the war was over the light was obsolete; we had radar, among other things, to replace it. Since then the light is only lit once a year, on December 7 as a memorial to those who died in Pearl Harbor.
We wrapped up this hike— but not the day of hiking; there's still more to come!— by walking down the paved road from the summit to the lower trailhead we'd parked at. Yes, we could've driven to within steps of the peak; but where's the fun in that? Even the walk down the road was very scenic. In the far-off views above you can see past the East Bay hills, including Las Trampas Ridge, from which we could see Mt. Diablo.
There were plenty of long-distance views as we climbed the last bit to the summit. Mt. Diablo's 3,849' (1,173 m) elevation isn't the highest in the Bay Area; peaks like Mt. Hamilton and Mt. St. Helena are a few hundred feet taller. But they're 40-50 miles away in opposite directions. If it were a clearer day we'd be able to see them. People have reported seeing as far as the Sierra Nevada and Mt. Lassen, the very southern end of the Cascade range, over 200 miles away on a clear day. The haze/smog limits visibility to about 15 miles here.
Atop the summit is a lookout tower with a signal light. This visit I learned that the "lighthouse" was not really for ships. It was built for aircraft. In the 1920s there was no electronic navigation. In 1928 a beacon light was erected here. After the attack on Pearl Harbor it was turned off for fear it would guide an enemy in attacking San Francisco. By the time the war was over the light was obsolete; we had radar, among other things, to replace it. Since then the light is only lit once a year, on December 7 as a memorial to those who died in Pearl Harbor.
We wrapped up this hike— but not the day of hiking; there's still more to come!— by walking down the paved road from the summit to the lower trailhead we'd parked at. Yes, we could've driven to within steps of the peak; but where's the fun in that? Even the walk down the road was very scenic. In the far-off views above you can see past the East Bay hills, including Las Trampas Ridge, from which we could see Mt. Diablo.
