Mount Diablo Seven Peaks (with Black Point)

I'd already done the classic Diablo Six Peaks loop once before, but this time I decided to make it harder by tacking on Black Point, a seventh summit tucked into the park's quieter northern side. What's normally a long, hard day out of Mitchell Canyon turned into a genuinely massive one — 26 miles and about 7,200 feet of elevation gain, comfortably the toughest version of this challenge I've put together.

The day started in the dark, with the first couple of miles across open grassland lit by nothing but a pre-dawn glow on the hills, then real sunrise breaking over the ridgeline through the oaks not long after. A wild turkey was out foraging in the wet spring grass as the light came up, and the hills themselves had that vivid, saturated green that only shows up for a few weeks each spring — the kind of morning that almost makes you forget how much climbing is still ahead.

The core of the day was the same familiar gauntlet as before — Mount Diablo, North Peak, Eagle Peak, Mount Olympia, Mitchell Rock, and Twin Peaks, all strung together across ridgelines, talus, and chaparral — but adding Black Point meant an extra out-and-back excursion down into the park's less-traveled northern trails, away from the main loop and away from basically everyone else on the mountain that day. Black Point tops out at a modest 1,791 feet, nothing compared to Diablo's summit, but by the time I reached it, every foot of elevation gain mattered.

Seven summits, 26 miles, and 7,200 feet in a single day: brutal, and easily the hardest day I've had on this mountain. The early morning light on those green spring hills made for a beautiful start to a day that only got harder from there.