On a perfect spring day, we took a beautiful hike
at Morgan Territory Regional Preserve.

A new hike

Craig and I are always promising ourselves to get out and explore more of the many wonderful hiking trails in our area. Don’t get me wrong: we love our “stupid little hike” along Buckeye Creek, which we do at least once a week. But there’s so much more to discover in the Bay Area that it seems a shame not to venture further afield from time to time. Yet despite our good intentions, this doesn’t happen as often as we’d like. To Craig, a perfect day suggests a flight in his plane, or I already have something else on my calendar, so those things often take precedence. And other projects — most recently, our new garden — also frequently claim our time in preference to a new hike.

But last week, we made a plan to go hiking somewhere in Contra Costa County. If you’re not from this area, you’ll likely not know that Contra Costa is the next county inland from Alameda County, where we live. Craig spent his high school years there and has a special fondness for Mount Diablo and the Diablo Range, which stretches south for more than 200 miles across twelve counties, beginning in Contra Costa.

I did a little research (thanks, AllTrails!) and proposed a hike in the Morgan Territory Regional Preserve, north of Livermore. We had hiked there once before that I remembered, and this time I wanted to find a route that did not involve going down, down, down into a canyon and then up, up, up, up, up, up…. (you get the idea) the other side.

So we chose the Bob Walker Ridge hike, which follows the Condor, Volvon, and Blue Oak Trails. It’s just a little over three miles — well, probably a bit more for us, since we missed our turnoff more than once — but it winds through an archetypical California landscape of open fields and oak trees.

After all the rain this winter, the grasses had not yet begun to fade into their summer hues. However, the abundant wildflowers enlivening the landscape were predominantly yellow, and the overall palate of blue, green, and gold was simply breathtaking.

We couldn’t have chosen a more perfect spring day — warm but not hot and with a pleasant breeze — and we thoroughly enjoyed exploring this corner of Morgan Territory. Though it was a fairly short hike, we felt our post-hike burgers and fries were well earned.

• Save Mount Diablo
• AllTrails: Bob Walker Ridge: Condor, Volvon, and Blue Oak Trails

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