Ben and I did a two-night trip to Black Mountain over Memorial day weekend in 2025. The other times we had gone to Black mountain had been one-night trips, so having an extra night to hang out and explore this time was super nice. The low point of this hike is still the quarter mile walk on Page Mill by the highway, but the rest of the walk more than makes up for it.
We hiked through Arastradero, Foothills, Los Trancos, and Monte Bello to the campsite. After some cous cous and tea, we walked to Black Mountain for sunset. We had the campsite to ourselves Saturday night, despite all the sites being reserved online.
The next morning, we soaked up some sun before heading off late morning for an ~12 mile day hike. We followed the Indian Creek, Canyon, Grizzly Flat, Chestnut, Christmas Tree Farm, Skid Road, and Indian Creek trails, going through Monte Bello, Upper Stevens Creek County, Long Ridge, Skyline, and Monte Bello preserves. It was fun to explore lots of new trails! That evening, we made mac n cheese and tea and read in the tent for a while.
In the morning, we hiked back down Monte Bello, taking lots of photos along the way. Then we walked down Coal Creek preserve, and Ben ventured off trail to climb through a culvert. Finally, we slowly made our way through Coal Mine Ridge, taking a swing and lunch break along the way, and ubered home from Alpine road. After some nice showers, we celebrated our successful trip with burritos and margaritas at Ray’s (please ignore my finger lol).
