Mount Olympia & North Peak

Back on the free Regency Drive side of the mountain for another two-summit day, three and a half years after the first — same climb up into Donner Canyon and onto the relentlessly steep Olympia Trail, same route on to North Peak without ever touching Diablo's main summit.

Spring had the canyon looking completely different from a dry-season visit — bright green grass on the slopes, a scatter of pink blossoms lighting up a drainage partway up the climb, and at one point a full cloud inversion pressed up against the ridgeline below, a solid bank of fog filling the valley while the trail stayed in clear sun above it.

Same two summits, same free trailhead, same honest climbing on both — just a completely different, greener mountain than the first time around, and a good reminder of why this route is worth repeating in a different season.

Not every Diablo day needs to end at the main summit. This one started from the Regency Drive trailhead in Clayton — a free, no-fee alternative to Mitchell Canyon — and climbed straight into Donner Canyon before turning onto the relentlessly steep Olympia Trail. Mount Olympia's summit, at 2,946 feet, is short in distance but brutal in grade, one of the steepest sustained climbs anywhere in the park.

From Olympia, the route continues about a mile along North Peak Road to North Peak itself, at 3,557 feet — Diablo's rugged, road-less twin, nearly as tall as the main summit but without the crowds, the pavement, or the visitor center. With Diablo's true summit visible the whole way across the gap, it would have been easy to keep going, but this day was about these two peaks and back.

About 10.5 miles and 3,000 feet of gain for two solid summits, done the free way — a good reminder that Regency Drive is a perfectly good front door to this mountain when Mitchell Canyon parking fills up or the fee feels unnecessary for a shorter day.