On our way to Mount Saint Helena we encounter fog as soon as we began crossing the Golden Gate Bridge. We began our hike at 8:31 AM and ended it a few minutes before 4:00PM. The first mile or two were unexpectedly steep and very shaded but in less than half an hour we made it to the service road, which took us to the summit of Mount Saint Helena. Once on the fire/service road, the trail is completely exposed. The sun was completely out by 9AM and the temperature eventually reached 80 degrees. However, it did not feel like 80 because there was a mile wind during the entire hike, specially in the higher elevation. About half way up, we saw a blanket of fog covering the Napa Valley. Still, the view was beautiful and the fog gave it mystic touch. The road was very dusty, the dust was like powder and each footstep would make a “puff” sound and dust would raise from beneath our shoes. We did not see any wild flowers and only saw a couple of chip monks and a few birds. This was a bit disappointing because I did nog get to use my Nikon camera to capture the wildlife like I was expecting. At one point of the trail, we saw five people practicing rock climbing, also very unexpected. Over all, the trail is not very difficult. Even though it is labeled as a challenging/strenous hike, I personally think it's easy to moderate. The elevation gain is gradual after the first two miles. There were not too many chances to shelter from the sun so whenever we came across a tree along the road, we took 15 to 20 minutes breaks as we enjoyed some snacks. So if you do this hike in summer, bring lots of water, long sleeve shirt, pants and a hat or baseball cap otherwise you will get good sun tan/burn like I did. Oh, and the trail was not crowded, but we did see people going up and coming down. Not taking into account the breaks, it took us almost six hours to complete the trail. The views are amazing from the different spots along the trail so make sure you have your camera ready at all times. Oh, I almost forgot, I was not too happy about the communication towers at the summit.