27 Feb Mount Diablo: Your Next Alternative Viewing Point of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Written By: Frederik Steinfath

The iconic landmark of San Francisco is undeniably the overwhelming Golden Gate Bridge. It seems like people often view it from the same angles, and that’s perfectly fine. However, what if I told you there’s another amazing viewpoint of the bridge, situated on a mountaintop not far from the Bay Area? In reality, it’s just 29 miles away, and the trip using BART and a taxi will cost you around $70, taking approximately 90 minutes one way. But don’t worry about time, it’s the weekend and you’re in California.

After the drive you’ll meet the mighty and tranquil Mount Diablo, which has a view only worthy of God and his evil brother Devil. But what makes this viewpoint, known as Mount Diablo, so special? Well, The journey to the top is a bit like a dance with the devil, especially if you show up drunk or dizzy. Some parts of the mountainside are steeper than a skyscraper, and the road protection is as scarce as Aristotle’s presence. Not that his works don’t live on forever, but let’s face it—he’s gone, much like the safety at some points during the trip to the top of Mount Diablo. A few bicycle riders have died during their lightning bullet route down the mountain.

Mount Diablo offers a panoramic view of the Bay Area, including the mighty, and at times paramount, Golden Gate Bridge, as mentioned earlier. At the summit, if you make it there, you can read about the history of why it’s called Mount Diablo. I won’t spoil too much, but it has something to do with Native Americans being considered a pest by those who, in the past, believed they were entitled to all of this promised land, also known as California.

At the summit, you can enjoy lunch and witness the conquests of the mountain. Many people either run up, which seems challenging, or even ride their bikes to the top. What we did was quite the opposite; we took our van. However, it was absolutely enjoyable and amusing to observe people’s facial expressions as they went from almost at the top to making it to the top.

It made me wonder why we, as Homo sapiens, always strive for achievements. Why does it always have to be about completing things? Why can’t it just be about everything that is in between? But I’ll save that discussion for another time. I simply want to share this gem with you.

The landscape is incredibly green, with rolling hills and huge trees that must be a couple of decades old. The hills are around 130 million years old, as I learned today in California Geography. All in all, Mount Diablo is what I would consider idyllic.

There’s even a tower that looks like it was built in medieval times. It’s constructed from cobblestone rocks and provides an even greater peak at what’s around you.

The trip wasn’t tough on me; it was more of a challenge for my mate, Nicolas, because he decided to run up. I just put on some really cool tunes and drove our van slowly but surely to the top. When I got to the top, our van seemed to be having a hard time. The radiator/cooling system was hot, and a little leak was showing due to its overperformance.

Luckily, while I was checking the engine (I’m no motorhead), a nice stranger we decided to call Mechanic Kai popped the hood and started helping and explaining what we should do to take good care of our beloved van. Like in the cartoons, he poured water into the cooling system to check for leaks and, of course, cool her down. It passed his tests, and we were good to go. We also exchanged information, so now we have a contact near Mount Diablo. We were just about to go when suddenly my belly started to rumble.

I took out our Jetboil, a super handy device for boiling water for oats or coffee. But this time, we were going to use it for something relatively special: we were going to eat ramen on top of Mount Diablo. I boiled water, cut some cilantro, and then put an egg in the Jetboil. Boom. I mixed it all with the spices, and voila! We had a nice light lunch on top with an astonishing view. We could almost see all the way to Chinatown, where I’m sure you could get even more delicious ramen, but we loved this one. I looked at my watch and thought, let’s collect some more gear for our van so we can be fully equipped for numerous adventures.

We decided to go as slow as we could to both enjoy the views and be careful without our brave soldier. We haven’t come up with a name yet, but it’s a Dodge Ram from 1997, and the only nickname I’ve come up with so far is the White Slug. We really hope that name won’t stick, but time will tell. On our way down, we decided to go to Walnut Creek. There are two ways to Mount Diablo, but on our way down, we spotted a lot of different birds. We saw a kingfisher sitting by the water stream, looking for its lunch. Kingfishers tend to have amazing blue emerald feathers and an orange stomach; they also carry a big beak around in which they can hold a lot of fish.

When we stopped the car to take a break, we looked at the flowers on the side of the road, and in the blink of an eye, a hummingbird appeared in front of our very eyes. It was there, and then it was gone. That little creature really made my day. To my knowledge, there are quite a few hummingbirds in California. That’s my best piece of advice: go look for hummingbirds. The word for hummingbird in Spanish and Danish is also very pretty. Check it out: Kollibri (Danish) colibrí (Spanish).