Mt. Diablo State Park

It's been awhile since we hiked.  Boy are we out of shape!!!

We had fun exploring this Bay area haunt.  It's a hot spot for rabid cyclists who don't mind torturing themselves with a crazy, winding, uphill ride that they share with panicked drivers.  We practically had the place to ourselves!  Well, we did share it with a few of those aforementioned cyclists.  It takes them an hour and a half to make the ascent, and 20 minutes to go back down.  They FLY back down that hill and it's really scary to watch.

We drove up to the tippy top, hoping for some SPECTACULAR views of the Bay area but we had a little too much haze for any jaw dropping to occur.  No matter!  We did the little loop hike at the top, then had lunch before setting out on the real hike of the day.

OK, I have to admit that I really didn't do my hiking homework.  I picked a couple of trails that looked perfect (Juniper and Summit) and we set off.  We dropped in elevation at an alarming rate.  What a rookie mistake!!!  The whole family was laughing on the way down because we knew how hard the climb back to the car would be.  Luckily, it was 43 degrees when we finally got back to the car so overheating wasn't an issue.  Lesson learned!

 We stopped in a deserted campground for climbing.  What a pretty place!  The trees were so old and huge that supports had been installed in several places.  We were very impressed!

Here are some tired girls!  We really love wearing them out.   :  )