In the final episode of our Falls Trail tour, learn about some of the wild and not-so-wild life you might see along the winding Wasserman Trail, including mariposa lilies and wild pigs. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
There's still water on the Falls Trail. As you get near the end of the loop, you can check out a Mount Diablo rock formed from what Rachel Carson called "the long snowfall of the sea." "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
About halfway into this classic Mount Diablo hike, we get our first good look at the waterfalls of Wild Oat Canyon and the well-traveled rock that hosts the show: pillow basalt. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
In this cool spring, plenty of flowers still flank the Falls Trail, and interesting shrubs, too. Thanks to the area's serpentine soils, unusual species abound—like scrawny Q uercus durata : leather oak.
Meet Mount Diablo's rarest oak, and the feminist who first named it for science: Albert Kellogg. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
History sleuths: Wander around an old cabin site in Mount Diablo State Park to find clues about how people used and misused this land in the 20th century. And how today's volunteer "Trash Removal Project" is making things right. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
A first-person account of a 1977 fire in Mount Diablo State Park from former ranger Burt Bogardus. An ill-fated tree planting effort followed that blaze, as well as construction of the Mary Bowerman Trail at the summit. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
Meet "the grandfather of national trails," an enterprising equestrian who built more than 200 miles of trails in the East Bay area. His spirit lives on in the volunteers who work on trails in the park today. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
Pine Canyon's peregrine falcons had a difficult season in 2021, when all four chicks were killed by a great-horned owl in a territorial dispute. Follow a team of California naturalists, stewards, and detectives as they tell the story of how the fastest animal on the planet fared last season. A Mount Diablo Interpretive Association video, produced by Wally De Young.
We listen to lively sounds of the creek as we head up Donner Canyon, named for an unfortunate family that lived here in the late 1800s. On the way: tales of history, valley oaks, and the widely feared "guardian of the woodland," poison oak. "Falls Trail" is 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
The rains have come. Which makes it a beautiful time to ponder the history, geology, plants, and animals to be found along one of Mount Diablo's classic hikes, the FALLS TRAIL. Join us for episode one of this 13-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Burt Bogardus, Paul Cardinet, and Jenn Roe. Presented by MOUNT DIABLO INTERPRETIVE ASSOCIATION in partnership with Save Mount Diablo. Originally published in 2019. Photos by Scott Hein, Bill Karieva, and others. Video by Kendall Paul Oei. Animations by Ta...
From the top of Lime Ridge, you can see Mount Diablo—and a surprisingly vast expanse of GRASSLAND in between. Learn about who owns these lands and some of the wild treasures they contain, including relicts of a drier climate such as desert olives and sagebrush lizards. From a tour of Lime Ridge featuring Seth Adams and Scott Hein, originally published by Save Mount Diablo in 2012. See Save Mount Diablo's website for information about current activities at MANGINI RANCH.
How a colorful reptile may help lower the incidence of Lyme disease in California. Episode 6.1 in Save Mount Diablo's guide to Lime Ridge, featuring Scott Hein and Seth Adams.
In episode 6 of our Lime Ridge Tour, we take an inside look at Bay Area shrublands, also known as CHAPARRAL. They may look lifeless at times, but they nurture a rich assemblage of plants and animals, including Alameda whipsnakes, hummingbirds, and blue-gray gnatcatchers. Sponsored by Save Mount Diablo in partnership with Mount Diablo Interpretive Association. Featuring Seth Adams and Scott Hein. Music by Phil Heywood. Production by Joan Hamilton. First published in 2012.
After a winter of abundant rain and even snow, WILDFLOWERS are waking up in the East Bay. As you get out to enjoy them, keep in mind that there are still discoveries to be made. In 2008, for example, Carpenter David Gowen found two phlox species new to science in LIME RIDGE OPEN SPACE, nearly surrounded by Walnut Creek and Concord. It's one more example of how important it is to protect and respect our open spaces! From a 2012 Audible Mount Diablo guide to Lime Ridge sponsored by Save Mount Diab...
It may be cold and stormy now, but sunshine and spring wildflowers are on the way. In this final episode of our history series, dream about how you'd like to enjoy Mount Diablo State Park in the days ahead. This series features Ken Lavin, Seth Adams, Robert Doyle, Michael Marchiano, Vincent Medina, and Cameron Morrison. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo and Mount Diablo State Park. Photography and video by Kendall Oei, Scott Hein, and Wally ...
After recent atmospheric rivers, Mount Diablo State Park has a lot of re-building to do. But some of its oldest infrastructure has withstood a hundred years of storms. Its summit building, stone walls, and some picnic tables and stoves were the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a government program that gave men jobs during the Depression in the 1930s. This is episode five of "A Brief History of Mount Diablo State Park," an eight-part series featuring Ken Lavin, Seth Adams, Robert Doyle, ...
Here are a few of the sights we savored on Mount Diablo in 2022. May your 2023 be filled with new delights! Happy New Year from the Wild Mount Diablo team.
More than 100 years ago, even before California had a park system, a small portion of Mount Diablo was set aside for protection. This episode of our 8-part series describes two dedication ceremonies: the first with well-behaved officials in 1921, and the second with an inebriated governor in 1931, when "the mountain lived up to its name." This series features Ken Lavin, Seth Adams, Robert Doyle, Michael Marchiano, Vincent Medina, and Cameron Morrison. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Assoc...
Starting in the 1870s, people with dollar signs in their eyes started selling Mount Diablo to investors and tourists. First was Joseph Seavey Hall, who built a hotel and two toll roads. Then came Robert Noble Burgess, who planned to build a castle on top with William Randolph Hearst. Then along came World War I . . . Part 3 of "A Brief History of Mount Diablo State Park," presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo and Mount Diablo State Park....
In the late 1700s, when the Spanish came north along the coast of California, they brought food with them in the shape of CATTLE. That was the beginning of a slow, but revolutionary change in the state's ecology. This is EPISODE 2 in an 8-part "Brief History of Mount Diablo State Park," featuring Ken Lavin, Seth Adams, Robert Doyle, Michael Marchiano, Vincent Medina, and Cameron Morrison. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo and Mount Diablo St...
It's wet out there! And a good time to ponder the importance of our favorite mountain. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo.
LIME RIDGE is a biologically rich shoulder of Mount Diablo that reaches down into Concord and Walnut Creek. It brings nature close to home for thousands of people. Learn about the hard work that has kept it wild. Featuring Seth Adams. Presented by Save Mount Diablo, in partnership with Mount Diablo Interpretive Association. Part four of a 2012 Audible Mount Diablo series exploring the plants, animals, and history of Lime Ridge Open Space.
Deer lend such sweetness, grace and majesty to any landscape. Come take a peek into the lives of Mount Diablo's local Columbian black-tailed deer. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo. Production, writing, and narration by Kendall Oei. Videos and pictures by Kendall Oei and Wally De Young. Music by Tommy Jervidal. Special thanks to Wild Mount Diablo Team members Joan Hamilton, Staci Hobbet, and Wally De Young.
Head out of the grassland and into a shady forest on the Paradise Valley Trail, where there's lots to learn about oaks, buckeye, hop tree, purple needle grass, and datura. Presented by Save Mount Diablo, 2012. Featuring Seth Adams, Heath Bartosh. Photos by Scott Hein and Joan Hamilton. Music by Phil Heywood.
More than a century ago, miners gnawed away at a northern shoulder of the East Bay's iconic mountain. Today, thanks to conservation efforts, it's an inviting open space with rare plants and big vistas. Featuring Seth Adams. Presented by SAVE MOUNT DIABLO in partnership with the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association as part of the Audible Mount Diablo series. Photos courtesy of Contra Costa Historical Sociey. Production by Joan Hamilton.
From Sentinel Rock, you can look deep down into DAN COOK CANYON. But who was Dan Cook? And how did he wrest this side of Mount Diablo from California's railroad barons? Stories galore from master naturalist Ken Lavin. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association in partnership with Save Mount Diablo. Episode 6 of their Audible Mount Diablo tour of Rock City. Production by Joan Hamilton.
On the edge of neighborhoods in Walnut Creek and Concord, California, LIME RIDGE OPEN SPACE trails quickly lead to big oaks, sweeping vistas, interesting wildlife, and rare plants. A place for short hikes and big discoveries. Featuring Seth Adams and Heath Bartosh. Part of a podcast series produced in 2012 by SAVE MOUNT DIABLO. Photos by Scott Hein. Music by Phil Heywood. Production by Joan Hamilton.
Time for a hike that kids will love? Try Mount Diablo's WIND CAVES. Exploring them is fun; understanding them is a fascinating lesson in how the world works. This segment is part of a tour of Mount Diablo's ROCK CITY is presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association. Featuring Ken Lavin. Music: Phil Heywood; Production, Narration: Joan Hamilton.
After a long absence due to COVID, Cafe Ohlone has re-opened, this time on the Cal campus in Berkeley. Learn about its founders and the plants, animals, and people of Tuushtak (aka Mount Diablo). Featuring Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino. Presented by Mount Diablo Interpretive Association. Music by Phil Heywood. Production by Joan Hamilton.
