Seth Adams of Savemountdiablo.org, which just issued a massive new hiking map of the area around Mount Diablo State Park, passed along some of his favorite Diablo hikes.

… you’ve done some nice hikes, the loop around the summit is one of my favorites. Mary Bowerman is SMD’s founder, by the way.

But not my favorite. (Oyster Point, Knobcone Point, and Riggs Canyon)

We do the Diablo Trail (shown for the first time on our new map) each year as a four day trip–Four Days Diablo, and I love the 2-4 days, the 2nd especially, out to Oyster Point (you have to climb to the ridge on either side of the trail for the best views, then drop into the Jackass Canyon section of Riggs Canyon.)

Knobcone Point is also a favorite — more like an Arizona-Utah scene than anywhere else in the Bay Area — and you were so close on your trip out to Balancing Rock. BR sits just below the top of a ridge which hides incredible wind caves more easily seen from the Blackhawk Road trail out to where the Oyster Point trail starts. Of course Vasco Caves has even bigger
caves, in a different more isolated way.

Riggs Canyon is pretty special too — our Tassajara Creek Trail is one of the best new trails built in the Bay Area in years.

Have you checked out Round Valley? Most beautiful valley in the East Bay.

Those are all on the list now.

Long as we’re on the subject of Mount Diablo, I’ve been told the Trail Through Time, which has segments at Rock City and the summit, will become a 6.5-mile path to the top in 2008.