Between Mt. Olympia and North Peak you can also take a class 3 cross country route. You basically follow the ridge from Mt. Olympia directly to the North Peak. There are several rock outcroppings to climb up. If you want you can go around the hard parts and make it difficult class 2. This is just a liitle more fun than the trail.
I also did the North Peak to Olympia traverse by keeping directly to the ridge top. This is class 3, but it's incredibly loose in places, with few solid foot/handholds on some of the downclimbs; I don't recommend this route. The rock is much nicer over by the main summit.
To clear up the route info a little bit. Do not turn at any unmarked intersections. Once up on the mountain's flanks you will come to 2 well marked junctions, bear left at both of these. The first of the 2 is the junction of the Olympia trail (the one you are on) and the East trail. Go straight here to continue up, now on the East trail. If you go right on the Olympia trail you'll end up taking the road to the top. Hint, come down this way for a loop. About a mile past this first juncion you come to the intersection of the East trail (the one you are on) and the Zippe trail. Again stay to the left as a right takes you over to the road. According to the map the East trail has now turned into the Zippe trail, contiue up. This takes you to the top. The views along this last part are excellent.
hey guys: my buddy and i camped out last weekend on mt. diablo state park, sfbayarea and we hiked to the diablo summit and continued on to try to bag the following peaks: north peak and mt. olympia which was supposed to be nearby.
i only had one of those basic 5 bux maps of the park that we were going off of so we were basically on our own at this point!...first off its kinda tricky to find the northpeak road or northpeak trail that leads to these peaks. according to the map its a straight shot to these peaks from the diablo summit/gift shop at the top but, after circling the diablo summit we couldn't find the start of the trail? by accident we ran into the park ranger and found out that the northpeak road/trail starts at the lower summit parking lot or across from the restrooms (on your left). anyways, we proceeded onto the trail where there were no trail markers to be seen passing by the big rock (devil's somthing i think it was called?) and onto the northpeak road/trail up the steepest part of the park to the top of the radio tower. from there we continued on and just going by what we could visually see as two peaks back to back but, not really sure if we were on the right trail to mt. olympia. after descending down a rock scramble from the northpeak we crossed over one peak and hiked up the next mountain which we claimed as mt. olympia as there were no markers indicating what mountain it was? (btw: i looked for the plastic tupperware box mentioned in someone's trip report but, it was no where to be found on the summit.) we saw one other peak that was considerably lower but decided not to go for it, since it was winter season and with the sun going down at that point we decided to head back to our campsite so we just shrugged our shoulders and called it a day...maybe next time we'll just try and hit all 4 summits...another day, another time. great views all around that day and a jewel of place right here in the bay!
anyways, here's the link to a pic i took of the two peaks from the top the north peak radio tower:
so if someone can confirm if one of them is indeed mt. olympia then my buddy and i could resolve our bet between us! i gave him crapz the whole way back for not whipping out his gps to confirm the height when we were on the summit...anyways....any info. or help would be much appreciated...thank you.
Hey Deep6, I think these two bumps in your picture are not Mt Olympia, they're part of the North Peak massif. Mt Olympia is much lower and farther from North Peak. Hope you win your bet!
This trail description was getting a little old, but I wanted to try it anyway. There is now a small brown park sign on the gate that reads "Mt Diablo", but no clear indication that parking is allowed.
I only made it up to Olympia, weather was closing in around North Peak, so I didn't push on. I wrote up some more info on my blog if it's helpful to anyone:
Climbed all three peaks on July 13, 2014. The information provided on gregable's blog was very useful, especially the map of the trails at the beginning of the hike.
Here is the GPS data for those interested:
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/541166143
Brett A - Mar 22, 2003 5:11 pm - Hasn't voted
Route CommentBetween Mt. Olympia and North Peak you can also take a class 3 cross country route. You basically follow the ridge from Mt. Olympia directly to the North Peak. There are several rock outcroppings to climb up. If you want you can go around the hard parts and make it difficult class 2. This is just a liitle more fun than the trail.
Matthew Holliman - Apr 6, 2003 4:43 pm - Hasn't voted
Route CommentI also did the North Peak to Olympia traverse by keeping directly to the ridge top. This is class 3, but it's incredibly loose in places, with few solid foot/handholds on some of the downclimbs; I don't recommend this route. The rock is much nicer over by the main summit.
Chris Doig - Sep 7, 2004 3:44 pm - Hasn't voted
Route CommentBring lots of water! The sun beats down on you as early as 9am. You are exposed to it most of the way up.
Chris Doig - Sep 7, 2004 4:04 pm - Hasn't voted
Route CommentTo clear up the route info a little bit. Do not turn at any unmarked intersections. Once up on the mountain's flanks you will come to 2 well marked junctions, bear left at both of these. The first of the 2 is the junction of the Olympia trail (the one you are on) and the East trail. Go straight here to continue up, now on the East trail. If you go right on the Olympia trail you'll end up taking the road to the top. Hint, come down this way for a loop. About a mile past this first juncion you come to the intersection of the East trail (the one you are on) and the Zippe trail. Again stay to the left as a right takes you over to the road. According to the map the East trail has now turned into the Zippe trail, contiue up. This takes you to the top. The views along this last part are excellent.
deep6 - Jan 24, 2008 5:33 pm - Hasn't voted
Anybody Know If This is Mount Olympia?hey guys: my buddy and i camped out last weekend on mt. diablo state park, sfbayarea and we hiked to the diablo summit and continued on to try to bag the following peaks: north peak and mt. olympia which was supposed to be nearby.
i only had one of those basic 5 bux maps of the park that we were going off of so we were basically on our own at this point!...first off its kinda tricky to find the northpeak road or northpeak trail that leads to these peaks. according to the map its a straight shot to these peaks from the diablo summit/gift shop at the top but, after circling the diablo summit we couldn't find the start of the trail? by accident we ran into the park ranger and found out that the northpeak road/trail starts at the lower summit parking lot or across from the restrooms (on your left). anyways, we proceeded onto the trail where there were no trail markers to be seen passing by the big rock (devil's somthing i think it was called?) and onto the northpeak road/trail up the steepest part of the park to the top of the radio tower. from there we continued on and just going by what we could visually see as two peaks back to back but, not really sure if we were on the right trail to mt. olympia. after descending down a rock scramble from the northpeak we crossed over one peak and hiked up the next mountain which we claimed as mt. olympia as there were no markers indicating what mountain it was? (btw: i looked for the plastic tupperware box mentioned in someone's trip report but, it was no where to be found on the summit.) we saw one other peak that was considerably lower but decided not to go for it, since it was winter season and with the sun going down at that point we decided to head back to our campsite so we just shrugged our shoulders and called it a day...maybe next time we'll just try and hit all 4 summits...another day, another time. great views all around that day and a jewel of place right here in the bay!
anyways, here's the link to a pic i took of the two peaks from the top the north peak radio tower:
[url]http://i255.photobucket.com/albums/hh129/deep6_415/mt_olympia.jpg[/url]
so if someone can confirm if one of them is indeed mt. olympia then my buddy and i could resolve our bet between us! i gave him crapz the whole way back for not whipping out his gps to confirm the height when we were on the summit...anyways....any info. or help would be much appreciated...thank you.
gordonye - Feb 5, 2008 4:57 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Anybody Know If This is Mount Olympia?Hey Deep6, I think these two bumps in your picture are not Mt Olympia, they're part of the North Peak massif. Mt Olympia is much lower and farther from North Peak. Hope you win your bet!
gregable - Feb 2, 2014 3:12 pm - Hasn't voted
UpdateThis trail description was getting a little old, but I wanted to try it anyway. There is now a small brown park sign on the gate that reads "Mt Diablo", but no clear indication that parking is allowed.
I only made it up to Olympia, weather was closing in around North Peak, so I didn't push on. I wrote up some more info on my blog if it's helpful to anyone:
http://gregable.com/2014/01/mt-olympia-hike-part-of-mt-diablo-state.html
webenji - Jul 18, 2014 1:18 am - Hasn't voted
Re: UpdateClimbed all three peaks on July 13, 2014. The information provided on gregable's blog was very useful, especially the map of the trails at the beginning of the hike.
Here is the GPS data for those interested:
http://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/541166143