Mount Diablo Summit (Grand Loop)
Mount Diablo State Park · near Walnut Creek / Clayton · SF Bay Area
Hiking · Trail Running
At a glance
- Difficulty
- strenuous
- Route type
- loop
- Distance
- 6.8 miles
- Elevation gain
- 1,700 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- October–May (spring wildflowers; summer is hot)
- Distance
- 13 miles
- Elevation gain
- 3,200 ft
- Best season
- Oct–May (cool & green) · brutal summer heat
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- No permit; state park entrance fee. The Bay Area's great inland summit, with one of the largest view-sheds of any peak in the US.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 1 of 5
- How the permit works
- No permit. Mount Diablo State Park — $10 day-use per vehicle. Multiple trailheads (Mitchell Canyon, Regency Gate, summit road).
What is here
- Features
- Enormous summit view-shed · Spring wildflowers & green hills · Rock City sandstone · Sees Sierra crest on clear days
- Features
- 3,849-ft summit with the biggest view in the Bay Area · On a clear day: Sierra crest to the Farallones · Mitchell Canyon wildflowers in spring · Grueling, iconic East Bay training climb
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Not permitted
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Go on a clear day right after a winter storm for the legendary long-distance visibility — that's when the Sierra crest appears on the eastern horizon. Start early in any warm month; the exposed slopes get brutally hot. You can also drive most of the way up, so the trails are quieter than the summit parking lot suggests.
Trail Running detail
- Surface
- mixed
- Intl tip
- Mitchell Canyon (Clayton) is the classic runner's start; the summit also has a road and visitor center. Carry ample water — the upper mountain is fully exposed and there's little reliable water. Combine with the wine country and Delta to the east. Rattlesnakes are common in warm months.
The guide
Mount Diablo rises alone above the East Bay, and because it stands isolated from other high peaks, its 3,849-foot summit comman…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mount Diablo Summit (Grand Loop) — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.8816, -121.9142