Diablo Foothills Regional Park 2015-11-29

Apollo and I celebrated our 5 years of companionship with our first hike in Contra Costa county at the Diablo Foothills Regional Park. Bordered by Mt. Diablo State Park on the east and Shell Ridge Open Space on the west, this East Bay regional park has trails with plenty of variety and impressive views. I had parked in the Livorna staging area located at the end of Livorna Rd., Alamo (off Hwy 680).

The temperature was cool and crisp in the high 50s even with the bright sun shine. There was reasonable traffic this beautiful Sunday afternoon in the trails, possibly folks working off the Thanksgiving indulgences! 

Foothills trail

We started our hike from the Foothills trail, a wide dirt trail that quickly crosses over into Shell Ridge Open Space. There are several options to continue further into the Shell Ridge Open Space. We stayed on Foothills trail that was back within the regional park boundary. 

Shell Ridge

From Foothill trail, we turned into Stonegate trail. Taking us on top of the ridge and through several other trail intersections, this section of our walk offered great views of Shell ridge and its characteristic undulating hill formation, not unlike a camel back. 

Buckeye Ravine

We made our way from here to Buckeye Ravine trail. Descending sharply, in this stretch, we gave up the ~350 ft. elevation we had gained until now. This is a single track dirt trail that has posted signs of no-biking, but the allure of the rapid descend by the ravine made more than one biker bend the rule. 

Castle Rock

Just as it connects to Stage Road trail that runs along Pine Canyon Creek, Buckeye trail offers glimpses of Caste Rock, another impressive feature of our hike today. Castle Rock is on the border of Mt. Diablo State Park and is popular with mountain climbers. 

Stage Road trail

We turned right on Stage Road trail and walked about 1/2 a mile before coming to Little Yosemite trail. Part of Mt. Diablo SP, dogs are not allowed in that. We retraced our steps back and continued north on Stage Road trail. Over the next 1/2 mile or so, the trail not only had interesting rock formations on the sides but actually ran right over them.

Fairy Lantern trail

We turned left on Fairy Lantern trail and subsequently connected to the northern section of Buckeye Ravine trail. These two sections and the short stretch we walked by Briones-Mt. Diablo regional trail were all uphill as we looped back to the spot where we had headed down by Buckeye Ravine trail.

If you thought Briones-Mt. Diablo Regional trail was a mouthful, brace yourself! The same trail has two other names, American Discovery trail and Mokelumne Coast-to-Crest trail! And we just walked a quarter mile in this trail with multiple names, each a mouthful! 

Hanging Valley trail

From this familiar spot with views of Shell Ridge, we headed south by Hanging Valley trail. The nearly 1 mile stretch continued to put us through our paces climbing up and down before we connected to Alamo trail. 

Alamo trail

The homestretch by Alamo trail to the staging area was easy. Alamo trail goes through the backyards of a residential neighborhood in the unincorporated area of Alamo before reaching the Livorna staging area. 

We did nearly six and a half miles, climbing about 900 feet through several ups and downs along the way. 

More pictures from our hike.
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