Angeles Crest Highway
Part I

One of the best rides out of the LA Area is Angeles Crest Highway. This is a incredible mountain road you can enter just north of LA through the town of La Canada. The highway literally follows the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains and goes up to almost 8,000 feet at its highest point .  It is full of twisties and every crutch rocket jockey in LA knows of it. As a matter of fact where ever we take a break along Angeles Crest Highway we can always find parts and pieces of these crutch rockets where some jockey miss judged his skills and littered the road with plastic and glass.  If there is a bad part to riding Angeles Crest Highway it is worrying about the Crutch Rocket Jockeys and blind turns. I have to admit though these guys are incredible! I feel like the Valk handles terrific for what it is, but these guys take turns at speeds that flat amaze me!

As you enter ACH (Angeles Crest Highway) about 10 miles in is a spur road off to Mount Wilson which rises to about 5,000 feet. You can see all of the Los Angeles basin from this mountain which is why it is the perfect spot for and is used for television transmission. Almost all the television channels broadcasting to LA have transmitters here. Because the transmitting towers are based at 5,000 feet the signal from these channels can be received for 100's of miles.  At the top of Mount Wilson is also the Mt. Wilson Observatory.  From ACH it is about a 5 mile ride into Mt. Wilson and makes for a nice side trip.

Mount Wilson Transmitters
click on photo to see more detailed photo

Returning to Angeles Crest Highway the next point worth mentioning is Newcomb's Ranch.  It always has 100's of bikes parked out front on any given weekend, but also attracts other hobbyist, the day we rode in there was a Triumph Car Club with about 25 vehicles there.

Triumph Car Club
click on photo to see more detailed photo

Newcomb Ranch is actually a restaurant and bar. Upon arriving we were greeted by dogs barking at us, not that unusual until we realized these guys were on the roof (see photo).  Food is ok, beer is great.

Newcomb Ranch
(with dogs on roof)
click on photo to see more detailed photo

Four Harleys and a Fast Bike
click on photo to see more detailed photo

So after enjoying the pleasures Newcomb Ranch had to offer we continued up Angeles Crest Highway. As mention above this is a fun road to ride and the further you go on it the bluer the sky and fresher the air, something we really appreciate in LA. It is really remarkable that such a rugged and beautiful area like this can be so close to a large city like LA, but one of the nice things about LA and it surrounding mountains is the changes that are possible in just a few miles.  Minutes up ACH you enter different temperate zones, you go from scrub or Chaparral type vegetation into alpine as you rise in altitude. That day in July we left 80 degrees in LA and actually rode past snow lingering from last winter's El Nino!

The altitude had little or I didn't sense any effect with my Valkyrie. I was riding with four other bikes, all Harleys. One Road King 98, a Dyna Wide Glide, a Convertible and my favorite a 67 FLHT or something like that. That 67 is a personable machine and is the only one in this group that gets as much attention as my Valkyrie.

Angeles Crest Highway starts just north of LA runs through the San Gabriel Mountains, into San Bernardino County where eventually you meet up with the 15 Freeway which you take back toward LA through the El Cajon Pass which is the high point on the road from LA to Vegas.  The 15 Freeway right here runs parallel to old Route 66 which is another ride I plan to write about.

Beside wonderful turns and twists, and beautiful alpine forests,   some of the views off  the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains are stunning. The area where I shot the four Harleys and a fast bike (photo above) we are right on the point of the crest. If you look south you see all of the LA basin and on a clear day (not to often anymore) you can see the ocean 80 to 100 miles away. If you walk to the other side of the road you can look out at the Mojave Desert stretching out in front of you for hundreds of miles. The photos below dont do the vistas justice as I was using a short focal length but I include these shots hoping you'll get just an idea of the beauty of this place.

Looking toward LA

Looking toward Mojave

To our dismay, after only riding half way across Angeles Crest Highway we came to a road block. Angeles Crest was still closed at the higher altitudes.   They close Angeles Crest Highway every year when the snows come but usually have it open again by May. It seems this year the road got "El Ninoed" and requires more work than usual to reopen.  So we turned and went back the way we came, but I plan to ride Angeles Crest as soon as it opens agian as it is my favorite summer ride in LA. When I do ride Angeles Crest Highway I'll write part II where I'll take better shots of the desert from over 7,000 feet and ride across Mt. Baden Powell at Vincents Gap where the San Andreas Fault splits the San Gabriel Mountains and then down into the mountain Town of Wrightwood for lunch at the Yodeler restaurant where the food is ok and the beer is great!

GaleS  BACK