I hadn't intended to go out hiking today, but as I sat in front of my computer
at 8am typing up an overdue TR, I realized I'd rather be outside than doing the
mundane inside. I checked the weather report and found it called for a 60%
chance of rain - even that wasn't going to keep me inside. I tossed the rain
jacket in the daypack with the other usual items and headed out not long after
9am, late enough to get most of the morning commute traffic out of the way.
Today's objectives were four summits at the periphery of the park, two of them
actually outside. I had looked at these on my previous trip here a few weeks
ago but did not have enough time to include them in that day's overbooked
agenda. I spent about an hour on the drive, paid my entrance fee at the South
Gate and parked at .
Clouds would keep the sky overcast for most of
the day, a few drops would fall during my outing, but overall a very fine day
for hiking.
An interesting feature found shortly after I started down the road is
on the side that shows the Mt. Diablo Meridian. I had to stop and think for a
moment before realizing what it was. It lines up along the N-S line passing
through the summit of Mt. Diablo where the point was established in 1851 for
which most of the surveying of Central and Northern CA along with all of NV
originated. It was from this point that the Meridian (N-S) Line and Base Line
(E-W) were established whereby triangulation could then be used to accurately
survey
the surrounding lands.
Balancing Rock
This is a shown on the park map, found along the
.
It looks most interesting when approaching from the north but upon
closer inspection it isn't balanced all that precipitously. At first glance
it appears a difficult rock to ascend, but there is a use trail leading to
where a class 4 route can be found up the 15ft of prominence on that side.
Windy Point
Not far east of Balancing Rock the park boundary is encountered, marked by a
, unsigned. Property on the other side
is owned by the
Save Mount Diablo
foundation. Their purpose is to buy up surrounding lands to save them from
development. This 1,080 acre parcel is known as the
Curry Canyon Ranch,
acquired in 2012. It has not yet been opened to the public except on select
docented hikes and is still primarily used for grazing. The road on the other
side of the fence showed numerous bike tracks and a few boot prints to which my
own were added. Windy Point is located 2mi along the road from the gate, the
first half a shaded, view-deprived hike heading southeast and then turning
northeast. As it passes to the north of Cave Point the road comes out upon
. A dozen cows with small calves were grazing and
resting
here as I passed by. They were some of the tamest cattle I have seen - one that
was standing on the road let me pass within a few feet and others simply watched
me go by, not even bothering to get up from there resting position. Mt. Diablo
is viewed impressively all along this section of road to Windy Point, with the
Curry Canyon drainage in the foreground. A is
encountered just before the summit, the last 200ft requiring
some easy cross-country and another climb over the barbed-wire (made easier by
a convenient rock along the fenceline if you look for it) back onto Save Mount
Diablo property.
is found under a couple of old oak trees and
doesn't offer any views, but those immediately off the summit are
.
One can see far into the Central Valley (barring haze), south to Mt. Rose
and west across the East Bay Hills. And of course, Mt. Diablo looming large to
the north.
Cave Point
This was an easy sidetrip on the way back from Windy Point as the road passes
a short distance below the top across the northeast side. If approaching the
top from the east as I did, the highpoint appears at first to be a small
rock outcrop that is heavily guarded by poison oak. I spent some minutes trying
to cautiously find a way through to no avail, only to discover the true
highpoint about 20yds further north at
partially hidden
by oaks. Some poison oak present here too, but careful dodging can avoid it.
I wondered where the name had come from since I didn't see any obvious caves
at the summit. Upon descending north on my way back to the road I came across
a whole of with small and
and holes
where the softer rock has been eroded out of the harder surrounding rock over
the ages.
Knob Point
This was the most interesting of the summits I visited today and the hardest
to reach. It is located inside the park not far from Balancing Rock. I had
looked for use trails earlier when I was near the latter feature, but found
nothing but heavy brush, far too thick to plow my way through, knowing there
could be poison oak lurking in there. Instead I started down the Powerline
Access Trail to the east. , I had seen a thinner
trail in the
satellite view that looked like it might offer a way to Knob Point. This turned
out to be
that makes its way to some large rock features SE
of Knob Pt. I followed a thinner branch off this to the base of
where I found two bolted routes going up the rock - someone had put in a lot of
work to place about a dozen bolts on this sad little rock face - Yosemite this
is not. I worked east around this face following a faint trail that led to
some other
that I scrambled along and across as a way
to make it with minimal bushwhacking. It appears
that folks
have carved paths through the brush in several places over the years and though
not regularly maintained, they afforded easier travel than the raw brush would
have entailed. The final summit rock required climbing up through some mature
manzanita to scale the highpoint.
It would be nice to say the views were sublime and worth
the effort, but that would be untrue. The real fun was simply in getting there.
Off to
about 150yds were two pock-mocked sandstone features
sticking up above the tangle of brush and trees. They
looked to be of
nearly equal height and far more difficult to scale (maybe 5th class),
possibly the features for which Knob Point was named. The name itself is a bit
of a mystery. The nearby road is called Knobcone Point Road, named for the
Knobcone
Pines that grow here. It may be that the point was originally Knobcone Point
with "cone" dropped on the USGS map. In any event, I'd had enough of the
brush by this time and decided to head back the way I'd come.
Black Hawk Ridge
This feature is found a half mile south of Knob Point. Almost 1.5mi in length,
it overlooks the uber affluent community of Black Hawk and the surrounding
Sycamore Valley. There are park roads
going to the ridge from the east and west sides, the east side being steeper
but much shorter. I followed this up to where the road goes just below the
summit, then up a short, steep grass slope to the summit rocks. Dozens of
were scattered about a location where it appears a predatory
hawk or perhaps a coyote had dismembered and devoured its prey - lunch with
a view. in
an ammo box can be found here locked to the nearby trees. The summit itself is
cramped under these trees, offering no views, but
immediately below
the summit are decent enough. 45min later I was back at
, finishing
the outing in a little more than 4hrs. Certainly a better time than spending it
in front of a computer screen...