Eric was in town visiting and the boys wanted to do an overnight
camping trip. I suggested the Tumey Hills on the east side of the
Diablo Range. It's a very dry part of the range, described by the
BLM as California's westernmost desert region. It is characterized
by grass and low scrubs, not a tree to be found anywhere, thanks
to the rain shadow effect cast by the higher peaks in the range
to the west. The area is a mix of BLM and private ranch lands,
cows having dominion over both. We picked a mid-week day to avoid
the shooters and other weekenders that visit the range this time
of year, happy to find we had the entire place to ourselves.
I'd last been to the Tumey Hills seven years earlier, tagging the
two summits listed on LoJ. While Tom and Steve were chatting away
at our camp, Eric and I took an hour to drive into the hills for
the views and to tag a few summits. I got to enjoy driving the
Jeep around on the various ranch roads, labeled T1 - T7 by the
BLM. Some of the sections are very steep where I used 4WD. None of
them needed 4-Low. The ground was damp from a recent weak storm,
enough to keep the dust down but not enough to form mud. I had
gotten into some dangerous mud in the nearby Panoche Hills a few
months earlier, so was glad to find conditions far better today.
We visited Tumey Hills North first, a drive-up. We then drove to
Tumey Hills HP, requiring a short hike taking all of a minute. On
our way back, we visited Tumey BM, found on PB, a questionable
summit I had missed on that first visit. The skies were
exceptionally clear following the rains, giving us views of the
Diablo Range in three directions and east across the Central
Valley.
