It’s no secret that I love riding my motorcycle up and down Mount Diablo. It’s technical, tends to have very little traffic on weekday afternoons, and has kick ass views across Northern California.

While riding the Bay Area’s second tallest peak is awesome any time of the day, it’s especially awesome at sunset. I always tell people, it’s not the sunset at the top that’s the go to, it’s the ride down. That’s when you see the oranges, reds, blues, and purples dominate the sky. Add to that, the lights in the Diablo valley below begin to flutter across the landscape.

The problem is the park rangers lock the gates after they do the final sweep of the park, so you need to be out when they say it’s time to go, so you can’t see the full transition from day to night… unless you camp up there.

So, I wanted to change that. I booked a site up at the top of Mount Diablo on a Sunday night. as weekends are way harder to get, obviosuly. I’d been pushing pretty hard at work and thought a night in the woods would be good for me. As luck would have it, a 7am popped up on my calendar and the gates to the park would not be open, so I was forced to reschedule. Not a problem, the following Wednesday was free. Score. Just another $9 rescheudling fee. Damn. Camping now feels like a prepandemic airline, lol.

I’d shared my plans in casual conversation with J, who I’ve recently gotten to know and he was like “Cool! Let’s ride up there.” J is one of those good humans who jumps into the throws of things with you and makes them better. Let’s go!

It was a great ride up to the top. Weather was warm, but not hot. There was a gentle breeze. There was not a cloud in the sky. Photography was going to be awesome tonight. J headed back down the mountain as he had commitments in the bay and I remained at the top. As I was unpacking, I’d realized I forgot my pillow and some required equipment. UGH. If I headed back down now, I’d be locked out of the park. If I didn’t go back down, I’d make it, but I’d not sleep great.

Channeling my inner buddy J, Fck it. I’m here. I’ll make due.

The sunset was awesome. All of the things I’ve come to love about Mount Diablo came into play tonight.

As the sun continued to drop in the sky, the colors only became more vibrant. The lights of the Bay came up in ways I’d not seen before as I had to make my way down the mountain. This really was what I wanted to see at the top of the mountain.

With a telephoto lens I could capture a glmpse of Martinez and the Benecia Bridge off in the distance. The clarity of the evening tickeled me.

But then it got darker, and the magic of the area really did come alive. I could look across the valley and see lights from Plesanton to Benecia pulling in a full spectrum of colors.

I’d lost sunlight quicker than I thought. While I was setting up my tent, a good chunk of the most fun colors showed up in the 30 minutes after sunset. When I do this again, I will get up to the summit campground and set my tent up well before sunset (and use a packing list – regardless if the trip is local).

At this point in the evening, it hit me. I was tired. Not just it’s time to go to bed tired, but in deep need of some good quality rest. I’d been pushing hard for a good number of weeks at work, and I’d not slept well, and it was all catching up with me. I wanted to go explore the actual summit. I wanted to take better pictures of the vehicle at night. I couldn’t fight the desire to rest and rest well. I’m going to have to defer the rest to a future trip. Drats.

As I settled into the tent, the wind changed from a gentle breeze to what seemed like a full-out gale windstorm. The tent was leaning and shaking. If all of me weren’t in it, I thought it would blow off the summit. And wow, the tent was loud. Any hope of sleep blew off the mountain with the wind. Ugh.

I also didn’t catch how much slope my campsite actually had on the hill. What seemed level about 90 mins ago, now turned into “the slide.” I set my pad and bag on the tent floor, crawed in, then slid down to the bottom of the tent. I did a repeat of this at least three times before giving up in the noisy, holwing, rattling tent. I mean, just 10 mintues ago I was outside of the tent and it was quiet? Did the mountian know I was going to bed and then it just decided to torture me? Was El Monte de Diablo coming to life again?

If the full anger of the mountain was coming out, I was hoping the wind would bring the Pacific Ocean’s fog all across the Diablo valley. Eventually my sheer state of exhaustion took controle of the evening. I woke up about 6.5 hours later curled and pressed up against the bottom of the tent. I rested reasonably, but it was a far cry from what my body probably wanted.

Alas, the fog made a decent apperance, but was a far cry from blanketing the valley below. I’d never camped before on a weekday and worked the next day. It was a nice way to get in some needed nature time and then come into the office the morning! I’ll be doing another trip again – for sure. Next time I’ll get up earlier, use the list to bring everything I need, and spend more time scoping around!

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