Morgan Territory-Mount Diablo Loop

As a treat to myself this weekend (ahead of Mother's Day), I decided to take a nice hike on a loop that winds in between Morgan Territory and Mount Diablo State Park. I loved this 8-mile route, and plan to do a variation of it again next spring! Click "read more" to see my loop and more photos.

Map is from redwoodhikes.com

The last time I took a more serious hike at Morgan Territory, I noticed on the map the trailhead off of Old Finley Road and planned to hike in this part of the park for an upcoming visit. I did not realize at the time how integrated the trail system is between Morgan Territory and Mount Diablo State Park.

I found this excellent write up by Dave Baselt at one of my all-time favorite hiking blogs, redwoodhikes.com. I opted to do the route that he recommends based on the strength of his praise for the trail. Do visit his site for a full description--it's very clear and accurate.

His map is really good (as are all his maps), and I recommend either buying an official copy for multiple uses or printing this one out for a single-use.

The EBRPD map of Morgan Territory does not give adequate detail about the trails that are part of the state park system, and the map on the brochure for Mount Diablo State Park is entirely inadequate for actually hiking the park. This makes his map really very useful!

The hills in the Tri-Valley are mid-way between green and gold right now, and the summer gold color is taking over bit by bit every day. I was so delighted by how green the hills were relative to what they could have been, but I also found myself wishing that I had done this hike earlier in the spring when the green was at its most vibrant emerald. Hopefully next year, the pandemic will be behind us and hiking will be less fraught. I would love to do this hike in April!

Even though the green of the hills was past its peak, it was still an amazing (and much-needed) hike. I saw several deer, a rattlesnake, and several turkey hens with broods of chicks. I saw California quail, lots of smaller garter snakes, and various birds including one very close encounter with a turkey vulture. The wildflowers were blooming in abundance! The most spectacular by far was the Ithuriel's spear or brodiaea (Triteleia laxa, link) blooming along the open grassy hillsides, but the columbine (Aquilegia formosa, link) in the forested parts of the hike was a real treat for me too. It was so lovely to see the flowers blooming in such abundance.

The trail was not crowded in the more remote parts of the parks, but it was a little crowded closer to the trailhead. I recommend going as early in the morning as possible or midweek to maintain social distancing. Although it might work to bring young children up to the abandoned house on Old Finley Road, I think that it might be hard to bring them past there when the trails start to climb up--and this is certainly the most crowded part of the hike. Next spring, I plan to try out this trail as a variation of this hike, and I will do that one without bringing my daughter with me.