Palomar Mountain and Julian
A 487 km loop
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Why this ride
Leave the city behind and spend the day on roads with texture. A 487 km loop that starts and ends near Los Angeles, about 8 h 51 of riding. On the way it passes Lakeland Village and Julian. The highest point is about 1,150 m.
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.
- Lakeland Village
fuel
Lakeland Village is an unincorporated community on the south-western shore of Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County, California. It is not a place most people seek out, but for riders it matters because it sits right at the bottom of the eastern end of the Ortega Highway, State Route 74, one of the most famous and most notorious motorcycle roads in Southern California.
The Ortega climbs over the Santa Ana Mountains between Lake Elsinore and San Juan Capistrano, with tight bends, steep drops and views over the lake from the top. It is beautiful but dangerous, with heavy traffic at weekends, impatient drivers, blind corners and frequent police patrols. It also has a long record of serious crashes, so ride it with respect and leave the heroics at home. At the top, the Lookout, a roadside spot with a café and a famous view over the lake, is a classic riders' meeting point.
Lake Elsinore itself is the largest natural freshwater lake in Southern California, though its water level varies dramatically, sometimes drying out almost completely in droughts. The landscape around it is classic Southern California inland scrub: dry hills covered in chaparral and sage, with boulders and occasional oak groves. In spring, after the winter rains, the hills turn green and wildflowers bloom; in late summer and autumn, the hills are golden and the risk of wildfires is high.
The ride to Palomar Mountain and Julian heads south through the Temecula Valley, with its wineries, and then climbs into the mountains of north San Diego County. Lakeland Village and the city of Lake Elsinore next door have plenty of fuel stations and fast-food places, so this is a good place to fill up before the mountains, where services become scarce. Summer temperatures can be very high, so carry water and plan to ride early. Weekends are busy; weekdays are much calmer.
- Julian
food
Julian smells of apples and woodsmoke, and that alone tells you it is not the Southern California of beaches and freeways. The little town sits high in the Cuyamaca Mountains of eastern San Diego County, at roughly 1,300 metres, among oaks and pines, and in winter it occasionally gets a dusting of snow that brings half of San Diego up to look at it.
It began with gold. A strike in the hills nearby around 1870 set off a short, lively rush, and the main street still has the false-fronted wooden buildings and the slightly theatrical frontier air of that time. When the gold gave out, the settlers turned to orchards, and apples became Julian's second fortune. Today the town is best known for apple pie, sold in bakeries all along Main Street, and on autumn weekends the queues for a slice and the cider stands are long. Eat the pie. It is part of the ride.
What makes Julian special for riders is where it sits. To the north, Palomar Mountain rises above the valleys, crowned by the white dome of the Palomar Observatory and its famous 200-inch telescope, and reached by the South Grade, a well-known ribbon of tight, well-surfaced switchbacks that local riders treat as a rite of passage. To the east, the Banner Grade on Highway 78 drops dramatically from the pines into the Anza-Borrego desert, losing altitude fast as the vegetation turns from oak to cactus. To the south, the Sunrise Highway climbs along the rim of the Laguna Mountains with huge views down to the desert floor.
Mind the conditions. Mountain roads here can be littered with gravel and pine needles, and deer and slow tourist traffic are common on weekends. The area was devastated by the Cedar Fire in 2003, and you can still see scarred hillsides in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, a reminder of the wildfire risk in hot, dry, windy weather. Fuel options in the mountains are few, so arrive with a reasonable tank; Ramona, about twenty-five kilometres away, is the bigger town with more choice.
- Los Angeles finish