Diablo Range : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost

Overview

View across Diablo Range

The Diablo Range stretches almost 200 miles along the west side of the Central Valley, from the city of Concord, near Mt. Diablo, down to Polonio Pass on CA 46, east of Paso Robles. The range is characterized mostly by smooth, rolling grassland, however, some areas of the Diablo Range can be quite steep and rocky. Just about the whole range is baked in 100 degree temperatures in the summer and often snow covered in the winter. The Diablo Range is a prime target area especially for county highpointers, seeing that eight county highpoints are situated in the range: Discovery Peak,

TOPO! of the Diablo Range

Mt. Diablo, Laveaga Peak, San Benito Mountain (the highpoint of the range), Mt. Boardman North, Copernicus Peak, Mt. Stakes, and Table Mountain. Most of the Diablo Range lies on private ranchland, which hinders many hikers from exploring a lot of the range, however, there are a number of parks in the range. Some of these include Mt. Diablo State Park, Grant Ranch County Park, Henry Coe State Park, and the Clear Creek Managment Area. Most of the accessible areas of the range are located in the northern end of the range, servicing the Bay Area. Population density drops significantly as you head to the southern areas of the range. Despite access issues, the Diablo Range provides a seemingly infinite amount of areas to explore.

Getting There

There are numerous roads that lead into the Diablo Range. Interstate 5 runs along the entire east side of the range, while Interstate 680 provides access to the northern peaks of the range. CA route 25 runs along the west side of the central part of the range. Highway 152 travels through the range from Gilroy ro Los Banos. CA routes 41 and 46 head over the range in the Cottonwood Pass area, in the southern end of the range. From any of these major access roads, many smaller roads head directly into the range.

[img:183765:aligncenter:medium:TOPO! of the Diablo Range]

Red Tape

Much of the Diablo Range is private ranchland. Most of it is so vast and empty that hikers can hike freely without hassle. Out of the eight California county highpoints listed above in the Overview section, four of them lie on private property.