Angeles Crest Highway
A 490 km loop
Open this ride in the planner →
Why this ride
A proper escape from Los Angeles with roads worth waking up for. A 490 km loop that starts and ends near Los Angeles, about 8 h 54 of riding. The stops in between: San Clemente and Crest. The line favours views over speed.
Roadbook
- Los Angeles
start
Route 66 does not end in a blaze of glory. After more than three thousand kilometres from Chicago, the old highway frays into the boulevards of Los Angeles, and its last stretch is a patchwork of Foothill Boulevard, Colorado Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, ending officially at the pier in Santa Monica, with the Pacific beyond. The point on the map here is the old centre, where the city began in 1781 as a Spanish pueblo, and a few blocks of adobe buildings and a Mexican market street, Olvera Street, are still standing, near the grand Spanish-style Union Station, which opened in 1939.
The city is a sprawl of neighbourhoods more than a single place, joined by freeways that carry some of the heaviest traffic in the United States. Hollywood, Griffith Park and its observatory, the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, and the downtown skyscrapers are all within an hour or so of one another, depending on the hour. The Arroyo Seco Parkway to Pasadena, opened in 1940, was the first freeway in the western United States, and its tight curves and short ramps look quaint beside later designs.
For a motorcyclist, LA has a particular pleasure and a particular hazard. California allows lane splitting, riding between lines of slow traffic, under guidance from the highway patrol that advises doing so at a modest speed difference, and it turns an hour of gridlock into a manageable commute. It also means drivers are used to bikes appearing between cars, though not all are careful. Rush hours are long and heavy, with mornings and late afternoons the worst, so plan to arrive and leave at off-peak times. Fuel is available everywhere, though prices are higher than in most states.
The weather is warm and mostly dry, with a marine layer of cloud on the coast in late spring and early summer, locals call it May Gray and June Gloom, and the hot, dry Santa Ana winds in autumn. Smog can be heavy in summer. The best way to end the Route 66 journey is a slow cruise west along Santa Monica Boulevard to the pier, watching the light turn orange, and then a late dinner by the water.
- San Clemente
fuel
San Clemente was designed to look Spanish. When the developer Ole Hanson founded the town in the 1920s, he wanted a Mediterranean village on the California coast, and early deeds required white walls and red tile roofs. Many of those buildings still stand, on hills that slope down to the Pacific, and the town has kept a relaxed, sunny feel, with a long wooden pier, surf shops and cafés.
It also has a presidential past. Richard Nixon bought a house on the bluffs at the southern edge of town in 1969, La Casa Pacifica, which became known as the Western White House, and he hosted world leaders there and returned to it after he resigned in 1974. The house is private, but its location, above one of the best surf breaks in California, is well known. Trestles, at San Onofre State Beach just south of town, is a world-famous surf spot, and you will see surfers walking with boards along the beach trails.
As a fuel stop, San Clemente does the job easily, with stations right off Interstate 5, the main road between Los Angeles and San Diego. South of town lies Camp Pendleton, a huge Marine Corps base that keeps the coast undeveloped for many kilometres, and the freeway runs through open hills with the ocean on one side. North of town, the Pacific Coast Highway runs through Dana Point and Laguna Beach, with cliffs, coves and expensive houses, and it is a beautiful ride, although busy with traffic on weekends.
If you are on the way to the Angeles Crest Highway or Death Valley, you have a long day ahead. The Angeles Crest, Route 2, climbs from La Cañada Flintridge into the San Gabriel Mountains, with sweeping bends and big views, and it is one of the most famous motorcycle roads in California. Death Valley is much further, through the desert. Either way, fill the tank here, eat something and drink plenty of water.
The best times on this coast are the early mornings, when the light is soft and the roads are empty, and late spring, though June can bring a grey layer of fog known as June Gloom. Order a breakfast burrito, then walk out onto the pier and watch the surfers before you head inland.
- Crest
food
Do not confuse this Crest with the Angeles Crest, which lies two hundred kilometres to the north. This Crest is a small hill community east of El Cajon in San Diego County, a scatter of houses on steep slopes and ridges covered with granite boulders, chaparral and oak, with views over the El Cajon valley and towards the mountains of the Cuyamaca range. It has about two and a half thousand people and a rural feel, despite being so close to the city.
Crest has seen fire. In 2003, the Cedar Fire, one of the largest wildfires in California history, swept through the area, destroying many homes. The community rebuilt, but the risk remains, and in dry, windy weather, especially when the Santa Ana winds blow from the desert in autumn, the hills can be dangerous. Check fire conditions before you ride here in late summer and autumn.
As a food stop, Crest itself has very little, but El Cajon, a few kilometres west, is a surprising place to eat. It is home to one of the largest Chaldean and Iraqi communities in the United States, and its main streets are lined with Middle Eastern bakeries, markets and restaurants serving kebabs, shawarma, fresh bread and sweets. A plate of grilled meat and rice, with a cup of strong tea, is a fine meal before or after a ride.
The roads around Crest are tight and twisty, with steep climbs, blind corners and narrow lanes winding between boulders and houses. La Cresta Road and the roads through Harbison Canyon and Dehesa offer short but fun rides, and they connect to the bigger mountain roads to the east, towards Alpine, Julian and the Cuyamaca Mountains, where the riding gets even better. Watch for gravel, deer and local traffic, and remember that summer temperatures in the inland valleys can be very hot.
Bostonia, about six kilometres away, is the nearest larger community, and El Cajon has fuel, shops and services. Mount Helix, a nearby hill with a large cross and an outdoor amphitheatre at the top, offers one of the best views in San Diego County, over the ocean, the city and the mountains, and it is worth a short detour at sunset.
- Los Angeles finish