Mount Diablo State Park, California
The landscape image below was taken at Mount Diablo State Park in California (not far from San Francisco). It was taken several years ago, but I'm not going to say how many (too scary to think about). I thought much more of this picture then than I do now; however, just recently it was licensed as a 2-page spread for a textbook and e-book.
The day this was taken is certainly not one I will forget. I was in the town of Walnut Creek on a business trip and without a car. I extended my trip by a day and one morning before day-break I took a taxi all the way to the top of the mountain. Realize, I had never been to Mount Diablo before. Also realize, the visitor’s center at Mount Diablo’s peak is 3,849 feet in elevation. Riding in the back of the taxi it seemed like a curvy road to the top that would never end! I’m not a very naïve person, but this day… I was certainly a bit naïve. I assumed that once I got to the top I would just hike down. The problem is, after you’re on the top looking down, picking which direction to head down off the mountain, at least for a tourist, is not so obvious. It was after day-break at this point but very foggy everywhere below (further complicating the direction conundrum), and the visitor’s center was still closed.
I spent several minutes wondering around and contemplating my situation before seemingly out of nowhere a park ranger appeared. He had been working further down the mountain. He was extremely helpful in giving me some directions and even gave me an old, worn map. He told me take this trail to here, follow this road to there, take this trail to here, etc., and pointed me to the trail to start from and off I went.
It was a very LONG walk for the rest of the day but a very enjoyable one. It seemed like every ten feet I would find something else to photograph and then setup my tripod to shoot landscapes, nature close-ups, and even some wildlife shots before continuing the hike. I was a young photographer at the time and my pictures of that day were consistently quite horrible, but carrying a tripod and bag full of camera equipment down a mountain turned out to be good experience for what would come later, more walking!
At some point during the day I came across a ranger station and while trying to double-check my directions somehow managed to hitch a ride down the mountain road for a ways. If I recall correctly, I believe the ranger pointed out the next trail to take and off I went again. It worked out perfectly because I remember it was quickly getting dark when I finally got to the entrance gate and called for another taxi to take me back to my hotel. I was very, very tired and, would soon find out, very, very sunburned!
You can find out more about the park at the Mount Diablo State Park website.
UPDATE. May 2020: I’ve since returned to Mount Diablo a few times. After I got married my mother-in-law lived and worked in various surrounding towns as a travel nurse. I have had many images of Mount Diablo licensed over the years.
You can view more images from Mount Diablo by searching this site.