Audible 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 Tanya Atwater, UC Santa Barbara.

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 Diablo and Thomas J. Long Foundation. Featuring SMD's Land Conservation Director, Seth Adams.

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 De Young, among others. Music by Phil Heywood. Writing, production, and narration by Joan Hamilton. First aired in 2021, for the park's centennial celebration.

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, 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 de Young, among others. Music by Phil Heywood. Production by Joan Hamilton.