Mount Diablo is a mountain and state park found east of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a designated historical landmark of California, and is popular for hiking, cycling, camping, horse-riding or simply just sight-seeing. Quite interesting to know is that, because the mountain is situated between two earthquake faults, it grows a few millimetres every year!! Diablo also means “devil” in Spanish. Oh-oh!!

A typical sandstone boulder found in an area called “Rock City”. Hmm…the imagination is running wild now. Is that a head nestling in grass, or a melting lump of Swiss Cheese  😉

A retrospective view of the distance achieved so far. Rolling hills as far as the eye can see!

Sunny and pretty little California poppy wildflowers. It is against the law to pick or uproot them in the wild, and rightly so. They are also the official state flowers of California.

Cones from the foothill pine which is typically found in the park. Nearing the summit (right)

The top! Finally! The viewing range is quite vast, more than 200 kilometres on good days…

One last look at this wonderful landscape, then “splish-splash-got-to-dash” it’s off to the hotel for a well deserved dip in the shimmering, hopefully cool, swimming pool…