DATE: Wednesday, May 20, 2020
DISTANCE: 26.54 km / 16.49 miles
ELEVATION GAIN: 910m / 2986 ft.
TIME TAKEN: 7:15
MORGAN TERRITORY REGIONAL PRESERVE
MOUNT DIABLO STATE PARK
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA
SOUNDTRACK: Scorpions: Wind Of Change
SUMMITS:
•Windy Point: 644m / 2112 ft.
•Black Hawk Ridge: 622m / 2040 ft.
•Oyster Point: 642m / 2106 ft.
PHOTO ALBUM
MAP
Finley road, at the north end of Tassajara, outside of Livermore, can be used as a back door to Mount Diablo State Park or Morgan Territory Regional Preserve. Finley Road ends at a gate, at a private property line, with no parking right at it. So you have to park about a half mile down the road on a dirt shoulder and walk back to gain entry. Once beyond the gate you can continue on "Old" Finley Road towards Morgan Territory, or hang a left on the Oyster Point Trail, which will lead you into the Black Hills region of Mount Diablo SP. While far from the Diablo summit, this secluded corner of the park has charms of it's own: myriad rock outcroppings, oak shaded ravines, and even an inexplicable forest of Knob-cone Pine!
I figured this would be the last Mount Diablo hike of the season, until the cooling rains of winter arrived. It was about to get 'ot! Bloody 'ot! And while I don't mind hiking in the heat (a good way to sweat out the toxins!), getting up really early to avoid the worst sun of the day can be fun, I have personal transportation and fat government checks rolling in to subsidize my whimsical outdoor lifestyle, so for me, the coming heat of the Bay Area inland valleys signaled a time to focus my attention on the Sierras, and other cooler, breezier places. But before we go up there, let's have the last Diablo hike of spring 2020! This was a continuation of my Mount Diablo State Park exploration which had been ongoing during the Covid-19 pandemic. I was looking for all the ways to walk into the park from the outside, the entrances were all closed to motor vehicles. This was entry point number six. Finley Road entrance doesn't start you off in MDSP, or even the adjacent Morgan Territory, but it gives you access to both, an isolated backdoor. In fact, it's one of the most obscure of all entrances to Mount Diablo, being over five miles as the crow flies from the summit.
My hike began about 10AM, walking up the pastoral country road from the turnout down Finley. It was less than ten minutes to walk to the gate, ten more minutes on the road through private estates, and I was at the boundary of Morgan Territory. Two notable features after this were a washed out section of road, and a dilapidated old house. I can just read the real estate listing now! Scenic location! Filled with air and light! Bring your contractor and make your dream a reality! Turned left on Oyster Point Trail, which brought me to the MDSP boundary in six more minutes. Oyster Point Trail follows along a forested hillside of the ridge that contains Oyster Point, it felt a little bit wild, rustic, no people around at all. As I gained some elevation, I could see out at Marsh Benchmark to the east (previous hike), and north to the extensive rock formations that characterize this remote corner of the park. As always, I took note of El Diablo's first appearance. By 11:32 AM, Oyster Point Trail dumped me out of the woods, and into an open meadow, where an easy to miss signpost was not missed, and it directed me up to the summit of Oyster Point. The trail is faint and lightly used, but I was able to find my way up to what I determined was the actual high point, and also the placemark stick by 11:48AM. Back down, back along the trail. I was headed for Black Hawk Ridge now.
Oyster Point Trail continued west from the meadow, down and up and down through two creekbeds and through another semi-wild, woodsy area, where I encountered a lone mountain biker. I was dismayed to see some unsightly high tension power lines cutting directly through one of the most elegant rocky sections. Like an almost national park level of geological splendor, and THIS is how they choose to embellish it? "Where should we put these fucking power lines? How about right here, directly through these rocks? OK! Looks good to me!" I consoled myself thinking that someday, the power lines would be gone, and the rocks would still be there for millions more years. After this, I reached a five way intersection crossroads, and turned south. Up to the Blackhawk Ridge, which is rather open, and gave me a good view back to Oyster Point. Following the top of the ridge, I found the exact high point of Blackhawk, which is a small rock monolith. Continuing along the ridgetop, I caught a gimpse of my future destination, Windy Point. I chose to walk down the trail to the far west end of Blackhawk Ridge, and then loop back on a lower trail, so I could see a bit more of the park. The lower trail brought me east, back to the five way intersection. I now turned north, and soon split off of the fire / service road (that leads to access the power lines), on a single track trail that leads into an area colloquially known as "José's World." This is the heart of the rock formations of the Black Hills area. I sat down upon one of them, and finally ate lunch. Then half-heartedly looked for a path through the brush and boulders that would bring me to the area high point known as "Knob Point." But I soon decided to save it for another day. I still had a long path ahead of me.
José's World Trail cut through from one fire road to another, and I popped out on the next east/west trajectory, first turning west (left) to have a look at Balancing Rock. It was now 2PM. Then I went back east on the fire road, past José's World, continuing to a private property gate. I took the ranch/fire road through the mostly open fields to the base of Windy Point. It was only just before I reach W.P. that I officially re-entered MDSP again. Windy Point was reached by cutting uphill from the road, through the grass, to yet another oak and rock crowned East Bay hilltop. But it wasn't just any East Bay Hill. Rush fans take note, the summit of the hill has an elevation of 2112'! Maybe now you know the real reason I wanted to climb it! Windy Point lorded over the area, and gave me another view out to Marsh Benchmark, and beyond. It was now 3:09PM, and I had completed my agenda of features to visit for the day, so it was down, down, down the ranch roads, down the Tasajara Creek watershed. I took a break at a cow pond, which, unusually, had a name: Bob's Pond. Tassajara Creek Trail was a nice woodsy path that was in the oaken shade of the canyon. By 4:50PM, I had rejoined Finley Road, and was headed back through that corner of Morgan Territory, back past the abandoned homestead, back through the gate, back to the van. It had ended up being a long day, about 7.5 hours going 16.5 miles. I stopped at the grocery store on the way home and bought ingredients for the lasagna.
FURTHER READING
•Hiking Project: Some info on Oyster Point Trail
•Bob Burd: Bob handles Windy Point and Blackhawk Ridge in an efficient manner
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