Mt Diablo

Today we hiked in Donner Canyon in Mt Diablo State Park.  It was a nice change of scenery from the usual lush redwood forests we've been frequenting in the Santa Cruz mountains, and the recent rainfall made for some excellent waterfalls along the trail. (All pictures from the day can be found here).

There were also lots of awesome wildflowers and mossy bits to study.

Toward the end of the hike, we noticed a lot of large holes in the ground, and it wasn't until we saw a HUGE tarantula crawling into one of them that we figured out who was living there. Who knew there were tarantulas in the East Bay?

And although the trail was pretty steep, there were some great views of the Walnut Creek area and surrounding hills.

Of course, it wouldn't really be a good hike unless we got good and muddy. Matt, in his typical fashion, was barefoot for much of the hike. I was less brave but still managed to get dirty in the end.

In total, the trail was about 5 miles of steep grades up and down for a total elevation of about 1300 ft.  The steep climbs made it a nice challenge, and the views of were well worth it.  As I type this, Matt is asleep next to me on the couch with the cat snoozing on his lap.  So I think it is safe to say it's been a good day.