Mitchell Rock Trail to Counter Pines Trail is a 3.6 mile moderately trafficked loop trail located near Clayton, California that features beautiful wild flowers and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options.
The parking fee was $6 when we visited today. This is a great hike! My best friend and I did this as an evening hike and saw a beautiful sunset and a lot of wildlife, including coyotes and deer. The views from Twin Peaks were amazing–you could see all the way out to Suisun Bay! A couple warnings though: • Some areas of the Eagle Peak Trail part of the loop had eroded quite a bit • There were several areas that required an easy rock scramble during the final ascent to Twin Peaks • Parking is $6 • The length of the loop is closer to 4 miles than indicated here
A beautiful day at Mt Diablo with a stunning display of wildflowers! Mount Diablo state park has been a favorite place in the Bay Area for many wildflower enthusiasts to see so many incredible varieties of wildflowers. In abundance, we seen Shooting Star, Interior Goldenbush, Indian paintbrush in various colors, purple owls clover, milkmaids, snowdrops and Viola Calfora. The trails were dry and it was a real treat to be away from being quarantined at home. Not a lot of people out which was nice.
Beautiful hike with lots of peaks and vistas. For beginners like us, this was a tough 3.5 hour hike including breaks. First portion is mostly uphill, then on the way down from twin peaks, there’s lots of loose gravel that was slippery. Very rewarding, but challenging. We didn’t see a single other hiker the whole time. Ending on a service road was a nice respite.
The trail splits early in and we chose to go left first. If doing it again, I’d probably do right first given that the decent in our case was pretty rocky and slid a lot. It had great views of Mount Diablo and the surrounding area. The grasslands on the approach with the oak groves were pretty fantastic. Watch out for poison oak after the grasslands as there is a lot.
Awesome views. Do this trail at the end of March or early April for tons of wildflowers.