It’s no secret that I love riding my motorcycle up to the top of Mount Diablo at sunset. Arguably, it’s my favorite ride in the Bay Area — especially at sunset. However, the pavement going up the mountain — Northgate Road over to Summit Road, is a climb. It’s tight, technical, and cruddy. Bicycles and slow cars litter the landscape on weekends. It’s hot as F in the summer and can be cold as F in the winter. Plus, in the fall it’s littered with Fing tarantulas.

So why do I even like this ride? At sunset it’s truly Fing amazing! And today it’s Monday!

Mount Diablo is said to offer the broadest view in California. At sunset, that means watching the entire Bay Area change color at once.

The transition never gets old. The fog sometimes comes out for a show, sometimes it’s the main act. The skies shift as the light dims and the temperatures cool, and the landscape comes alive with it. When Justin floated a Mount Diablo ride that afternoon — one of those last-minute, off-the-cuff, let’s-go-riding kind of afternoons — I raised my hand and said “sunset.” He agreed! We left Walnut Creek at 7:15. Sunset was just over an hour later at 8:23.

The road up the mountain at sunset can be brutal. The sun blasts one side of the mountain, directly into your eyes. That’s usually the same side where the gravel collects. Coming down, the sunset show continues. It’s beautiful to descend into the fog and be enveloped in cooler temperatures as the bright reds turn into steel blues before surrendering to the night. I always take it slow down the mountain to watch this metamorphosis, the lights popping up across the valleys below. We were back down in the valley just after 9:00.

Thank you, J, for the ride!