Mount Diablo State Park Campground

I’ve been coming to this place for years.  This is literally the best place to see a sunset of “The Bay”.  There are a lot of trails for hiking.   However the draw back to this place is the amount of cyclists on the narrow and worn out pavement that we call roads.  If you are queasy about motion, plan on bringing a plastic bag to vomit in.  There are no guard rails, so if your driver isn’t paying attention off you go down the mountain. Once your are settled in, this becomes a very peaceful and enjoyable campsite.  One other thing, no matter how hot it is you’ll never be able to escape the howling winds at night.  Good tent stakes and warm gear is a must.   

Juniper is the Name 

This is a great camping spot only a short distance from Berkley or San Francisco. The campsites are nothing special and fairly uneven but plenty large and the hiking makes up for it. Each site has a very large stone grill (pictures) and a picnic bench that are in OK condition. There was plenty of space at our site to park 3 cars and put up 4 tents and 3 hammocks so we were very happy we could fit our whole group. It was pretty hot out since it was late in the summer but it got very cold at night and we were happy we had our sleeping bags while sleeping in our hammocks. Right from the campsite there are a few trails you can take and explore the area. My suggestion though is to drive a little ways down the road and do some of the more intense hikes. Make sure to bring lots of water! The best suggestion we got and in my opinion is now a necessity is to take the sunset hike (or sunrise) to the overlook point from the campsite. It is a serious climb but well worth it. 

Group Camping

This was a great campsite for people that want to go hiking near Berkeley or SF and have a car. They had a good number of spots to camp with grills at each site. Our site had some good trees as well to hang up our hammocks. Great hiking in the area through desert terrain although be ready for some hills. It was very hot on the hikes as their was not much sun coverage. Would definitely recommend. No open fires allowed when we were there because of the dryness of the area.

Great campsite near San Francisco/Berkeley

The campgrounds on this mountain include picnic tables, grills, bathrooms, and amazing views of the Bay Area. It can get very hot and dry during the summer months, but the sites are shaded by many trees. This mountain has many of hiking trails for various levels of hikers. The summit is just a short drive away from the campgrounds and has a visitor's center that has history of the mountain and the surrounding area.

Make sure that you lock up all food at night as the wildlife is very present and will take advantage of left out food.

Camping on Mount Diablo

We hiked up to Juniper campground from the Clayton side. The sites in the teens have less overhead shade but more privacy than those of higher numbers. The sites closest to the driving road/entrance/overlook will have the potential to be downwind of the bathroom, unfortunately.

  

The campground is a dry campground - as in no alcohol.

  

That said, we loved our site #15, and enjoyed the privacy it provided, plus the views (if you stand on the table or are tall). We didn't encounter critters. We had some trouble staking down on the rocky dirt. 

  

This is a good campground to explore the rest of the summit areas, plus Rock City.

Juniper Campground: hiked in

It was a great time! Stayed at site 7, well separated from everyone else. Room to set up two average sized tents. Rock ground, not very soft. Very hot outside, cooled down at night enough to make sleeping comfortable. Drove up to the peak at 7am before it opened to the public and we had the whole peak to ourselves. Do recommend!

Juniper, secluded site

Mt. Diablo SP has 3 campgrounds: Live Oak, Juniper, and several first come first serve sites at the junction of South Gate and North Gate roads about 2000ft up the mountain.

  

Live Oak is the closest to the entrance (and town), and features some cool rock formations to explore, but it's colder, has terrible cellular data service, and doesn't quite have the sunset / sunrise views that Juniper has.

  

Juniper is way up there, plan for a 45 minute drive from town to the top, longer if you are doing it on a weekend when you'll be waiting to pass cyclists (be very careful, do not pass on blind corners, this is a cycling destination). But it is absolutely worth it for the views of the east bay, and on a clear day, all the way to SF and the pacific. Truly one of the best camping views I've had.

  

Juniper had decent 10-15mbps ATT cellular service in most site locations, and also decent t-mobile, but ping was slow. The best sites at Juniper if you're sleeping in your vehicle are the flat ones down by the parking lot and vista (18, 20, 22). Note that most of the sites on the west side are not flat for a vehicle. Fine for a ground tent. Lot's of wind up this high, and not a lot of shelter, so plan accordingly. Water is off, probably forever as CA will be in perpetual drought, so plan for that as well.

  

Only reason for 4 stars is that they lock you in at sunset; if you want to leave you have to call the fire department to open the locked gate, it's not like a tiger-teeth exit but no entry kind of situation. This significantly reduces flexibility, but I can understand why they don't want a bunch of cars trying to race up and down the mountain after dark.

3 campgrounds, Juniper the best, but sunset lock-in

Tons of hiking trails, summit trail was nearby our spot in Juniper, no water available when we went, gates are closed sunset-sunrise, all around a cool spot and its nice how close it is to home. Seems pretty difficult to get a reservation, but its worth it if you can get in

Nice spot nearby

I was born, raised and have lived just below this mountain my entire life and camped here for the first time just last year.  Now my wife and I, and or my dogs and I will come up for a last minute Stay-Cation.

I have only stayed at the Juniper Campground. The Juniper Campground is one of three campgrounds on Mt. Diablo, and is the closest to the peak of the mountain. I like it because there is a large open space that looks out to the southwest, w and nw with views. When it's crowed and not to cold, I will go to the far back of the parking lot just below the top and almost have the place to myself for the views of the east, se, s and west then return to camp after sunset …shhh. Wake up early and watch an amazing sun rise at the same spot.

You can get some narly a\_ \_ "Diablo Winds" so make sure you clean your campsite and put your things away including trash and put your fire out completely before going to bed…seriously. I have been there and seen campers looking all over and not able to find stuff the next day because of the winds; on my last trip a guy lost a large storage box he said was around 3'x1.5'x 1.5', so not a small box. The "Diablo Winds" are compared to the notorious Santa Ana winds. The term "Diablo winds" refers to winds that flow from east to west up and over the Diablo Range over the East Bay region. I was there early January 2022, had an amazing clear night with hardly any wind. Went to bed around 10PM because the winds were slowly picking up. By 1AM my dogs was pooping her pants because it felt like my van was going to roll over…okay, I'm exaggerating a little…she really doesn't wear any pants and it might of been me.

Cell coverage has always been great for me. Hope you have a fun time experiencing this awesome place.

Great place for a stay-cation 

We arrived pretty late without reservation and there was very friendly worker and we got to choose our spot from the popular or less popular sites. We took less popular and it was peaceful. There were toilets and hand washing possibility.
30$ for night

Diablo 👹

Frustrating web site, said 0 available sites but when we got there, Ranger John was very helpful and we got a perfect spot.  Beautiful scenery. Showers only have cold water, but with 100° temp outside it wasn’t so bad, and happy to get the Yosemite dust off.   Must go to top of mountain, lovely views. Met some locals that explained where You can see San Francisco and places to see while in the area. $30 for the site, no power but water nearby. 