Mulholland and Malibu Canyons

A 335 km loop

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Why this ride

Scenery first, traffic last, with checkpoints that make sense on a bike. A 335 km loop that starts and ends near Sierra Madre, about 6 h 06 of riding. On the way it passes Castaic, near Agoura Hills, Rancho Palos Verdes and Westmont. The climb of the day is in Anaheim. It tops out at about 1,150 m. Long stretches are under trees.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Sierra Madre fuel

   Fuel at 0 km.

2. Near Castaic, on the way back swim

   Shortly before midnight on 12 March 1928, the St Francis Dam, a concrete wall holding back a reservoir in San Francisquito Canyon, collapsed. A wall of water swept down the canyon and the Santa Clara River valley to the sea, killing hundreds of people. It was one of the worst civil engineering disasters in American history, and it ended the career of William Mulholland, the engineer who had built the aqueduct that brought water to Los Angeles. The ruins of the dam lie a few kilometres north of this stop, broken blocks of concrete scattered in the canyon.

   This stop lies in the hills north of Santa Clarita, between Castaic and Bouquet Canyon, where the suburbs meet the chaparral and oak woodland of the Angeles National Forest. San Francisquito Canyon Road and Bouquet Canyon Road are popular with bikers, winding up through the hills with tight bends and views over the valleys.

   For a swim, Castaic Lake, to the west, is a large reservoir with a smaller lagoon below the dam, where swimming is allowed in summer at a designated beach. The water is warm, and the lagoon is popular with families.

   The riding is good but demanding. The canyon roads are narrow and winding, with variable surfaces, and the heat in summer can be intense. Wildfires are a constant threat, and roads can be closed at short notice. Watch for cyclists, wildlife and debris on the road.

   Santa Clarita and Castaic have every service along the I-5 corridor, so fill up there before heading up the canyons, where there is nothing. And stop for a few minutes at the dam site if you ride San Francisquito: the silence of that canyon, knowing what happened there, is something you do not forget.

3. Food stop near Agoura Hills food

   A break here at 96 km.

4. Rancho Palos Verdes photo

   The Palos Verdes Peninsula is a big block of hills pushing out into the Pacific at the south-western corner of Los Angeles, and Rancho Palos Verdes wraps around its southern edge. The coast road here, Palos Verdes Drive South and its continuation west, is about as scenic as a short ride in the LA basin gets: bluffs dropping to the sea, coves, kelp beds, and on a clear day the long grey shape of Santa Catalina Island floating on the horizon.

   The land here is restless. Around Portuguese Bend, the peninsula is slowly sliding towards the ocean, part of an ancient landslide complex that reactivated in the mid-twentieth century and has accelerated dramatically in recent years. The road through the slide zone ripples and buckles, is patched constantly and can be rough, with sudden dips and uneven surfaces; slow down and stay alert. The movement famously claimed the Wayfarers Chapel, a glass church designed by Lloyd Wright, son of Frank Lloyd Wright, which had to close in 2024 and be taken apart.

   The more stable parts of the coast are lovely. Point Vicente has a lighthouse and an interpretive centre on the cliffs, and from December to April it is one of the best places on the Southern California coast to watch grey whales migrating between Alaska and Mexico. Abalone Cove and the tide pools below the bluffs are worth a scramble if you have time and decent boots. The peninsula is green, full of eucalyptus, pines and coastal sage, and the air smells of salt and flowers.

   For a scenic stop, park at one of the pull-offs and watch the sun go down over the Pacific, ideally on a weekday when the traffic is lighter. Weekend afternoons bring crowds of cyclists, sightseers and residents, and parking can be tight. Fuel and groceries are available in Rancho Palos Verdes and the neighbouring towns of the South Bay. The ride back towards Los Angeles can be slow in rush hour, so time your departure carefully.

5. Near Westmont finish

   Simon Rodia, an Italian immigrant labourer, spent more than thirty years building a cluster of tall, lacy spires in his back yard in Watts, using steel rods, mortar and fragments of broken pottery, glass and seashells. The Watts Towers, finished in the 1950s, are one of the great works of folk art in America, and they stand a short ride east of this finish, in a neighbourhood of small houses and palm trees.

   This finish lies in South Los Angeles, near Westmont and Willowbrook, a district of small houses, churches and busy boulevards, between the I-110 and I-105 freeways. Inglewood, to the west, has been transformed by SoFi Stadium, a huge new stadium for the Rams and the Chargers, and the area around it is being redeveloped.

   Coming back from the Malibu canyons and Mulholland Drive, the final stretch crosses Los Angeles on the freeways, and the traffic can be brutal. California was the first state to make lane splitting explicitly legal, and local riders filter through the stopped freeway traffic as a matter of course. If you join them, keep the speed difference small, stay out of the way of the faster splitters, and watch for drivers who change lanes without looking, which is most of them at some point.

   The neighbourhood itself is unpretentious, but it feeds you well. The taco trucks that park along the boulevards in the evening, and the small family restaurants behind faded signs, serve food that many Angelenos would put above anything in Beverly Hills. Fuel is never far away; the trick is to pick a station on a main road and avoid the freeway exits at rush hour.

   If you have time before dark, the detour to the Watts Towers is short and genuinely moving: a man, his hands and three decades of stubbornness, standing among the bungalows.

6. High point in Anaheim pass
7. Scenic stretch in South San Jose Hills scenic
8. Back to Mulholland and finish

   Behind the neat grid of streets, the mountain wall rises steeply, thick with chaparral, and in clear weather after rain it is covered with a dusting of snow at the top, which surprises visitors who associate the city only with beaches.

   Sierra Madre is a small foothill town that prides itself on its village feel, with a pleasant main street, old bungalows and a long shadow of the mountain across it in the late afternoon. It is famous for its wisteria vine, planted in 1894 and said to be the largest blossoming plant in the world, which bursts into bloom in March and draws crowds. Arcadia, lower down, is home to Santa Anita Park, an Art Deco horse-racing track from the 1930s with the mountains as a backdrop, and the nearby arboretum has peacocks wandering the lawns.

   For motorcyclists, the mountain above is the draw. Mount Wilson Road climbs to the observatory on the summit, where a century ago astronomers used a large telescope to show that the universe contained other galaxies, which changed how we understand the cosmos. The road to the top is narrow, steep and quite twisty, and it is shared with hikers and cyclists. Angeles Crest Highway, a little to the west, is the main attraction, a long, rolling mountain road with gorgeous views.

   In clear conditions, the view from the high ridges stretches over the entire city, and on rare winter days all the way to the ocean and Catalina Island. In summer, though, haze usually hangs over the basin. Wildfires have damaged this area repeatedly, and roads can close at short notice, so check the status before you set out.

   Fuel is easy in Sierra Madre, Arcadia and Monrovia, and the area has a mix of old Californian diners and excellent Asian food, especially in Arcadia, which has a large Chinese American community and some of the best dumpling houses in the region. Go early on a weekday, and carry water on hot days.

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