After the Diablo Fire - Juniper and Summit Trail Loop

So I was able to get up to Mount Diablo with my wife this weekend for the first time since the fire.  Beth had gone up on Monday when the park opened and had gotten some impressive photos.  I had gotten her a Golden Poppy Pass which means she can go up on the mountain anytime and now that the kids are back in school will be pretty often.

Today we decided to take the Juniper and Summit Trail loops.  These basically begin and end at the Juniper Campground and would take us through the fire zone once we got to Summit Trail.  We have run the Upper Juniper trail before (my favorite for some pretty fun technical) but not the lower section.  What we found was a wonder bit of single track that combined some awesome views with some wonderful oak grotto.


Once we got to summit trail, the true climb began.  What amazes me that through the devastation of the fire, much of the trees will be fine -even the manzanitas that look like burnt out snags but are really full of live wood.  Really the grass and the smaller shrubs are gone (including the poison oak) but probably was needed anyway.

Summit trail is a pretty fun but steep climb.  The trail is still runnable and it is very clear that after the winter rains there probably be very few indications that the fire even occurred.  

Once to the summit it was time for the quick fun run down Upper Juniper.  All in all it was a fun 3.7 mile, 1,00 foot elevation gain run!