Distance: 43 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 4930 ft

Our Southern California ride list has three rides that are all big, chest-thumping rides up a mighty mountain: Mt. Figueroa, Gibraltar Road, and Glendora Ridge.  Of the three, Glendora Ridge is the most monotonous climb, both in pitch and scenery.    But it also has the best ridge ride, a rollicking roller coaster, often along the precise ridge spine (see photos below).  All three rides are detailed in toughascent.com, and I encourage you to familiarize yourself with his write-ups.

Despite the title, the ride is actually two very different rides, a long steady climb up Glendora Mountain Rd., then a roller along Glendora Ridge Rd. to the ski town of Mt. Baldy.    My computer recorded 5930 ft of vert, which puts it in the same category as Figueroa and Gibraltar, but it felt easier and I’m guessing the pitch is less intense.  Or I was having a very good day.

A word of warning: At the base of Glendora Mountain Rd. there is a sign reading “No Reckless Driving.”  How odd.  Are there roads where reckless driving is welcomed?  I am reminded of one of my favorite signs near my home, “No illegal dumping here.”  But that sign is LA-area code telling you that GMR and GRR are favorite sports car enthusiasts’ proving grounds, where racer wannabe’s come to hone their skills.  When I was there, the place was deserted.  But see Michael H’s comment below.  On a weekend day in fair weather, it might be a bit hairy.

Begin at the intersection of Glendora Mountain Rd. and E. Sierra Madre Road.  Ride up Glendora Mt. Rd.   The road is a very consistent pitch all the way to the intersection with Glendora Ridge Rd. 9.7 miles in, and the flora is unaltered San Gabriel Mountain shrub.   From the get-go you’re in canyon, so the views to the south, which you might imagine would be expansive vistas of Pasadena and points south, are in fact mostly a lot of canyons and ridges (see first photo below).  Can’t compare with the views of Santa Barbara, the Channel, and the Channel Islands on the Gibraltar Ride.

View to the south from halfway up the climb

At the intersection, go R onto the ridge road and ride to the intersection of Glendora Ridge and Mt. Baldy Rd. and the town of Mt. Baldy.   The joy here is the road contour: it’s up and down and back and forth, mostly up on the ride out, often teetering on the knife-edge of the ridge—as good a ridge ride as I know of.

Climbing out of a saddle on the ridge road—click on/enlarge to appreciate

Mt. Baldy is a ski town, which means it might be pretty buttoned up if you arrive out of ski season, but just into town on the R is Mt. Baldy Lodge, a knotty-pine-and-moose-head restaurant that caters to cyclists (just past a prominent white sign reading “Mt. Baldy Lodge Store”).  When I got there it looked closed, but I banged on the door desperate for water, and the owner came out and said, “Oh, riders know just to come around the back onto the patio,” opened up, and fed me cheerfully.

Glendora Ridge spine

The ride back along the ridge is pure joy, almost all of it at a slight descending pitch that makes you feel fast and strong as you pedal through the corners.  The ride down Glendora Mountain Rd. is straighter, faster, and more monotonous.

Shortening the route: Drive to the intersection of Glendora Mountain Road and Glendora Ridge Road and ride GRR.

Adding miles: At the intersection of Glendora Mountain Rd. and Glendora Ridge Rd., Glendora Mountain continues on down the back side of the ride for about 7 miles to East Fork Rd.  It’s very much like the riding on the front side, perhaps a tad steeper and drier.   Going L on East Fork (a nearly flat, pleasant enough road) takes you to San Gabriel Canyon Rd., a big road with shoulder but lightly trafficked, which you can take L for a long, gradual, and fairly pleasant descent back to your car, if you prefer loops to out-and-backs.  For a pretty little break in the intensity, check out the West Fork Scenic Byway, about a mile to the R when you hit San Gabriel Canyon Rd.  It’s almost a rec path, a closed road (go through the anti-car gate) along a charming trout stream.  You’ll only have to share it with two or three fishermen.

In the town of Mt. Baldy you’re looking at an infamously nasty climb of 4.6 miles up Mt. Baldy Rd. to the Mt. Baldy ski area.  This is the stretch of road often used to separate the sheep from the goats in the Tour of California.  The Tour stage route incorporates everything on our ride, almost everything discussed under Adding Miles, and more.  Those guys are nuts.

Distance:  27.5 miles
Elevation gain: 3540 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)
(A Best of the Best descent)

Some of this route is covered in words and pictures at toughascent.com.

The Santa Monica Mountains are THE road network for cycling in the LA area (see LesB’s excellent overview in the comments section of this ride and follow its links).  Everything between Hwy 101 in the north, the ocean in the south, and between Deer Creek Rd. to the west and Topanga Canyon Blvd. to the east is worth exploring, except the major through-routes.  If you haven’t been there, it’s pretty much the exact opposite of your LA stereotype—lovely serpentining climbs and descents on small roads largely without car traffic or houses, through wild, rocky, shrubby, narrow, steep canyons.

Most loop routes involve riding a stretch of Hwy 1, the Pacific Coast Highway—you ride the PCH, climb up into the mountains, ride east or west, then descend back to the PCH—but the PCH is surprisingly pleasant.  Sure, it’s a zoo, with masses of traffic both automotive and human, but it’s a “scene,” easy to enjoy, and there’s usually ample room for bikes.  Once you leave the PCH you will climb, often at 7-10%.  The only alternative to steep climbing heading north are the main arteries, Malibu Canyon Road and Topanga Canyon Blvd, and they’re both very busy.  This route is only one of many, but it includes what I think is the best descent in the area, and one of the best on the planet: Tuna Canyon Road (named not for the fish but for the tuna, the fruit of the opuntia cactus, aka prickly pear).

The Getty Villa is a stone’s throw to the east of Topanga Canyon Blvd., a perfect way to unwind after a ride.  Reservations are recommended.  This is not the Getty Museum, which is huge, but rather Getty’s first go at a museum, a cozy little hacienda.

Park at the bottom of Tuna Canyon Rd, or anywhere on the PCH between Tuna Canyon and Malibu Canyon Rd.  Parking along the PCH is surprisingly easy—much of it has a free unstructured parking curb along the north side.  Ride the PCH west to Malibu Canyon Rd. and take it north.  MCR is basic hectic shoulder riding, but it’s only for 4.5 miles.  It’s quite a striking canyon visually and would be a great ride were it not for the heavy traffic and occasional lack of shoulder room.  There are formal little turn-outs for you to take photos and regain your nerve.  It’s big easy rollers—you’ll gain about 250 ft in the 4.5 miles.

Piuma Road

Turn R onto clearly marked Piuma Rd. and climb at 6-8% without interruption for 5.5 miles to an obvious saddle—you’ll see the radio tower marking the summit as you approach.  This is pristine climbing through lovely, wild country and along a ridge spine with great views of the Santa Monica mountains to the west and north and the coastline and ocean to the south.  I saw 2 or 3 cars.  The road contour is so delicious, the first time I rode it I abandoned my ride plan and turned around at the summit to enjoy the descent.  Which I give you permission to do.

Malibu Canyon Road from Piuma Road: you just rode up that

But Tuna Canyon awaits, and it’s better.  Descend a mile past the saddle and go L on Schueren Rd., go R onto Saddle Peak Rd, and follow it to Tuna Canyon.  Go R on TCR and enter paradise.  The houses disappear, you’re absolutely alone, and you have a bucket-list, glassy, graceful, steep slalom descent through a pristine coastal canyon.   And it’s a one-way road, down only, so you have the whole road to yourself—no chance of on-coming traffic (except for the occasional scofflaw cyclist).   Pure bliss.

Shortening the route: You can ride up Las Flores Canyon Rd, which is very steep.  You can ignore the One Way signs on Tuna Canyon and ride it as an out-and-back—Jeff below encourages this (it’s 8.3% average, with moments of 14%).   But, as Charles points out after Jeff, to do so seriously imperils descending riders, who have every reason to expect an empty road, and I encourage you not to do this.  Or you can ride up Topanga Canyon Rd. (boring, busy, but not dangerous or difficult) and back down Tuna.

You can youtube videos of Tuna Canyon descents if you want a preview.

Tuna Canyon Road: just a perfect 4 miles

Adding miles: Many other roads in the area are reputed to be good, though I haven’t ridden them: Yerba Buena Rd., Encinal Canyon Rd., Latigo Canyon Rd., Las Flores Canyon Rd., Old Topanga Canyon Rd.—everything that’s a fine line on the AAA map.   As always, avoid the bigger roads: Decker, Malibu Canyon Rd.,  Kanan, and Topanga Canyon Blvd.  See comments below for more suggestions.

Tuna Canyon Road dropping to the sea

The most famous and most ridden road in the area is Mulholland Highway, but I wouldn’t ride it except out of necessity because of the traffic and the general air of reckless mayhem.  Before you venture forth on it, google the Youtube videos of cyclists being wiped out and motorcycles crashing for recreation on it.

If you want to go big and get a grand survey of the area’s roads in one throw, ride the route of the Mike Nosco Memorial, an 80-mile loop (with 8900 ft vert) ridden once a year as a group ride by the locals to honor one of their own.  Better yet, join the ride, on Nov. 3—it’s even free.  The route includes the toughest climb in the area, Deer Creek Rd., which leaves Hwy 1 near Pt. Mugu State Park and reaches pitches of 18%.

Distance: 23 miles one way
Elevation gain: 3410 ft

A Best of the Best ride

Our Southern California ride list has three rides that are all big, chest-thumping rides up a mighty mountain: Mt. Figueroa, Gibraltar Road, and Glendora Ridge.  Of the three, Gibraltar is the hardest, feels the biggest, and has the grandest vistas.  Some of my readers call it one of the best rides in California.  I prefer Figueroa, but Gibraltar is mighty.  All three rides are detailed in toughascent.com, and I encourage you to familiarize yourself with his write-ups.

Gibraltar is an iconic ride—a demanding, uninterrupted 9-mile climb up the mountain to a summit, a delightful 2-mile serpentine descent, a 2-mile climb to a lesser summit, and another long descent down the back side.  It’s 3800 ft of gain in 23 miles (Mt. Figueroa has more gain but less gain-per-mile) and one of the toughest climbs I know.  That may be because it’s without rest or variety, and, unless you know the route, you can’t see how much climbing lies ahead, so the climb seems eternal.  You keep thinking it’s over, and it isn’t.  To guard against this, know as you set out that you are going to climb at a moderate-to-challenging pitch for 9 miles, with one short descent near the top that is only a set-up for heartbreak when the climbing comes back.  Despite my caution, this ride has spectacular vistas, good surfaces, some crackerjack descending, and a general sense of epic grandeur.  When you’re done, you’ll feel like you accomplished something.

As with all these Southern California mountain rides, there is no available water on the route (until Painted Cave Road), and it can be very hot in the summer.  Plan accordingly.

A number of readers say they prefer the ride in the opposite direction (clockwise).

Begin at the intersection of W. Mountain Drive and Hwy 192.  (W. Mountain actually runs on top of 192 briefly, and you want where it splits off at the east end.)  Ride north on W. Mountain and ignore side roads until you see Gibraltar Rd. clearly signed at an intersection.  Climb through dry, brushy hillsides with a nice, rugged beauty.  The vistas of Santa Barbara, the Santa Barbara Channel, and the Channel Islands below you are immediately good and keep getting better the higher you climb.  Keep looking behind you—some of the best views are of the switchbacks you just rode.  The climbing averages 8.5% for the next 6.4 miles.   You start off at 7%, then here’s a stretch of 5-6% as respite in the middle, and then it ramps up to 8-10% around mile 4, and stays that way for the next 2.4 miles—the hardest part of the ride.  This last steep stretch used to be made even harder by some seriously flawed road surface, but the Tour of California peloton rode it in 2016 (again in 2018) and the authorities repaved it for them, so now it’s ideal.

Looking back on the first leg of the climb

At 6.4 miles, in the middle of nowhere, you reach, of all things, an intersection, with a big sign with lots of road names on it.  You’re intersecting East Camino Cielo Rd. to the L and the R.  Go R (the obvious “other” road) if you want to do an out-and-back with more climbing and good vistas, in which case, you da man.  Our route follows the main road to the L.  You’ve got about 3 more miles of climbing still to do, all of it at a significant pitch, but nothing as steep as what you’ve just done.  Enjoy the brief ripping descent following the intersection (but don’t get fooled into thinking the work is over) and climb to the summit, at about 9 miles in.  And I do mean summit—it’s a true mountain top, covered with radio antennae you can see coming.  The views, in all directions, beggar description.

Looking back at Santa Barbara and the Channel Islands from halfway up

Begin a 2-mile, open, joyous descent down the west side of the mountain.  This may be the best descending on the route.  Once I met a teenager skate-boarding down it, and to him I say chapeau.  Then it’s a 2-mile ascent—same old 6-8%—that can be a complete surprise and will kill your spirit if you don’t know it’s coming.

At about mile 16 you have a choice: you can take Painted Cave Rd. to your L, or you can stay on Camino Cielo.  It’s a tough choice.  Painted Cave is an often absurdly steep and twisty descent—you don’t ride it, you just survive it.  We’re talking clamped brakes, cramping hands (if you’re still on rim brakes), 8 mph down 14% pitches (Does anybody ride up this thing?)(Apparently yes—see user comments below).  The rest of Camino Cielo is a classic, tight serpentine drop on glass down to Hwy 154.  So why not opt for that?  Because it commits you to a few miles of unpleasantly trafficked shoulder riding on 154.  My advice: do Painted Cave once, for the experience, and never again.

Nothing much north of the ridge

If you’re going the Painted Cave route, be warned: it’s very hard to see the turn-off.  It’s almost invisible, it comes when you’re very busy negotiating some fast switchbacks, and it slants back at about 7 o’clock, so watch your mileage.  There is a road sign, but it’s oddly situated so it probably won’t help you find it.

Once on top, you roll, then you descend

Whichever way you go, where Painted Cave crosses Hwy 154 it becomes Old San Marcos Pass Rd. (aka North San Marcos Pass Rd.), which you take.  It’s a fun, deserted, twisty road back to town with good views and some turns signed at 5 mph (and they aren’t kidding).  Once I met a guy unicycling down the 8% pitch of Old San Marcos Pass.   Incredible.

As always, I haven’t included in our ride the connector ride that closes the loop, because it isn’t great riding, but you’ll probably have to do it anyway, so: just ride down Cathedral Oaks Rd., which becomes Foothill Blvd./Hwy 192, to your car, which is 6 miles of not-unpleasant residential rollers on a big two-lane road with good shoulder (not flat—c. 850 ft of gain in those miles).   If you know you’re doing the loop, park at our route’s end-point, in lovely Tucker’s Grove County Park, and do the flat(ter) riding first to warm up.

Shortening the route: Forget it—you’re in for the full monty.

Old San Marcos Pass Road

Adding miles:  Stephen in the comments below details an excellent out-and-back our loop connects with, Stagecoach Rd., which adds about 10 miles.

You’re a thirty-minute car trip from the Solvang area, discussed under the Mt. Figueroa ride.

Santa Barbara has a famous beachfront you can ride along, though it’s probably more fun to rent roller blades and do the skate path along the beach.

Distance:  28 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2150 ft

There’s a whole genre of literature that testifies to Man’s need to make for the sea occasionally.  Amen to that.  Especially on a bike.  Not ride along the sea—head straight for it.  Here’s a ride that does that in classic fashion.

This is not a life-changing ride.  You won’t be able to brag to your friends that you bagged it.  It’s just a lovely rolling ride to the beach, with a Sixties throw-back beach community straight out of a Gidget movie, and, some say, the best burger in California, at the end of the road.   It’s all gentle up and down, with one hill in the middle that’s a bit more than that.  The scenery is perfect coastal hill-and-dale, as you ride up a creek drainage, sometimes in the gnarly riparian oaks and sometimes in the grassy hills above them.  The road surface used to be an issue but there has been some resurfacing and it’s no longer a problem as of 3/26 (thanks, Stephen) .   Not a “big” ride but a jewel.

Park at the intersection of Jalama Rd. and Hwy 1.  There’s a large dirt parking lot a stone’s throw up Jalama.  Ride to the ocean.  About 4 miles in you’ll start a pretty serious 1-mile climb, summit, then do a pretty serious descent.  Everything else just rolls up and down peacefully.

Sometimes you’re above the riparian woods

About a mile from the end, you summit a small hill, and suddenly the ocean and coastline are all before you (see photo below).  The road drops steeply away in front of you, and it’s a big, fast 10% esse curve plummit to the beach.  Now kick back.  Adopt the relaxed vibe.  Say to someone, “That ho-dad grommet really ate it when he tried to hang ten in the curl.” Grab a world-famous Jalama burger at the Jalama Beach Store.  It’s been made from the same secret recipe by the same family since the 1970’s—local legend has it that Ray Kroc was a huge fan and regular customer.

I think there is a fee to use the County Park there, but if you tell the ranger you aren’t staying he’ll let you pass.

Sometimes you’re in the trees

The ride back is the same in reverse.  The big hill is a mite bigger in this direction, and the descent down the back side is good for 40 mph.

Shortening the ride: It hardly needs shortening, but if you’re determined, drive down Jalama as far as you need to to make sure you get to the ocean.

Adding miles: You’re a short ride up Hwy 1 from Santa Rosa Rd. (not to be confused with Santa Rosa Creek Rd., also in our list) and the other riding in the Solvang area discussed in the Adding Miles section of the Mt. Figueroa ride.  Drive to Lompoc and you can do San Miguelito Rd., which begins as a dull wide two-lane but goes all wild and one-lane in its last miles (thanks, Stephen).

First view of the ocean

Distance: 40-mile loop
Elevation gain: 4690

(A Best of the Best ride)

Our Southern California ride list has three rides that are all big, chest-thumping rides up a mighty mountain: Mt. Figueroa, Gibraltar Road, and Glendora Ridge.  Of the three, Figueroa is the prettiest, by a long shot.  All three are detailed in toughascent.com, and I encourage you to familiarize yourself with his write-ups.  I find it’s helpful on big climbs like these to know exactly what lies ahead, so I’ve tried to be unusually detailed about mileages and pitches.

Since there is no reason to drive this road in a car except to gawk at the scenery, and it’s a tough drive, you should be pretty much alone.  When I rode it on a Monday in January, I saw 4 cars and no bicycles once I was on the mountain (c. 20 miles).  It’s nice to have the road to yourself, but you also can’t expect to be rescued, so take everything you might need.

Figueroa is a ride through farm country, then a ranching valley, a climb up the mountain, a ride across the ridgetop, a drop down the back side, and a ride through another valley.  The climb was made famous as a favorite training ride for Lance Armstrong and the Discovery pro cycling team, when the team did an annual spring training camp in the Solvang area.   It’s a substantial ride—4700 ft of gain in 40 miles, which is not to be sneezed at, and there’s a lot of 8-10% stuff—but it’s never leg-breaker hard and if you pace yourself it’s very doable.  It’s not lush but it’s grand, in its spartan way as pretty a ride mile by mile as any in Bestrides.

Several readers complain about the road surface in the miles before the climbing starts.  Apparently it’s pretty horrible now.  Caveat emptor.

There is a serious question about which direction to ride the loop in.  Locals tend to go clockwise.  I have only ridden it counterclockwise, and that’s how I’ve mapped it.  But see Nibbles’s comment below for a compelling argument for clockwise.  The main drawback to that is that the west side of the mountain is distinctly steeper than the southeast side.  One could also make an argument for riding the mountain as an out and back, up and down the east side.  If you do that, be sure to continue 2-3 miles past the summit, because the ridge riding is really special.

In warm weather, people ride Figueroa as early in the morning as possible, because the top of the mountain can be windy—very, very windy—later in the day, and you ride on the spine of some razor-edge saddles where there’s a Venturi effect from one side to the other.  I rode through there once at about 11 AM, and the wind was already a handful. 

Begin in Los Olivos, a charming little tourist town where almost every shop on the main street is a wine shop or antique store.  Ride out of town heading south on Grand Ave., the main street, soon go L on Roblar Ave., stay on Roblar through postcard-pretty farmland as it crosses Hwy 154 and makes a ninety-degree turn to the R, at which point its name changes to Mora Ave.  Mora dead-ends at Baseline Ave.  Go L on Baseline, which runs into Happy Canyon Rd at a signed T intersection.  Go L on Happy Canyon and essentially stay on it for the rest of the ride.

Happy Canyon Road

Happy Canyon rolls gently and deliciously upward through stupidly beautiful ranchland.  You can see the valley becoming narrower, and soon it dwindles to nothing and the climbing begins at mile 14.   If you’re having an easy, non-climbing day, just riding the length of Happy Canyon out and back would be charming (though two commenters say Happy Canyon’s road surface is currently awful).

Climb for exactly 10 miles to an obvious summit, all through hardscrabble but very pretty country.  It’s comforting to keep the mileage total in mind so it doesn’t seem endless.  The climb starts steep out of the gate, and keeps it up for about 2 miles.  Don’t worry—it’s never worse than this.  Don’t get so involved with your heart rate monitor and odometer that you forget to look around—you’ll get much higher, but this leg has some of the prettiest climbing vistas on the ride.

Two miles into the 10-mile climb you hit a stretch of dirt road that’s exactly 1 mile long (it’s comforting to know that too), but it’s hard, fairly smooth dirt with firm rocks—no loose gravel—and you don’t need big tires or anything like that.  It’s actually a refreshing mental change from the pavement.   I did this ride after a light rain, and the dirt was fine, because the entire dirt leg is in the sun and dries quickly, but I’d think twice about doing it after serious rain, or do the ride in the other direction so you’re descending the mud.  Going our way, the dirt has two very short stretches of significant pitch, which you might end up walking if it’s mucky.

The dirt mile

After the dirt, you get an unexpected and sweet .8-mile descent, then have it easy for a while.  But the 8-10% stuff comes back, and you have the hardest part of the ride, a long, tedious, steep pitch up an uninteresting shrubby draw—the only part of the ride that isn’t particularly scenic. Someone has tried to be helpful by writing the remaining mileage to the saddle (see below) in tenths of a mile on the pavement, but they got the decimal in the wrong place, so you’re told you have .04 miles to go, .03 miles to go, etc.

As you approach mile 20.5 you’ll see you’re approaching a saddle.  At the saddle there’s an intersection.  A large sign reads “Sunset Valley Rd.,” with an arrow straight ahead signed “NIRA Campground,” an arrow L signed “Figueroa Mt. Rd.,” and an arrow R signed “Cachuma Mt. Rd.”  Go L; you’ll stay on Figueroa Mt. Rd. all the way to Los Olivos.  You have 3.5 miles still to climb to the summit, and some of it is more 8-10% stuff, but it’s much more pleasant than what you’ve just done, because the pitch varies constantly (so you get a lot of respites), and the vistas are constantly stunning.  You’re now riding with a sheer dropoff on your L, and the views of the canyon you just climbed up will take your mind off your labor.

Past the obvious summit, ride a long, rolling ridge with great views to either side, then drop, often quite steeply.   You face about 3 more significant short climbs, but in the main the work is done.  At mile 28 you pass a Ranger Station that probably can give you water in a pinch.

I confess I don’t like the descent.  Oh, it has wonderful moments, and the scenery is consistently great, but from about mile 27 to the valley at mile 34, you’re looking at 7 miles that are mostly too steep, too curvy, and too rough to be fun.  I did a lot of it at 10-12 mph, squeezing the brakes hard the entire time.   

When you cross a cute little bridge, you’re suddenly back on the valley floor, and this valley is just a tad less gorgeous than Happy Canyon.  Ride along the valley’s edge back to Los Olivos and your car.  Midway through the valley you pass Neverland Ranch, Michael Jackson’s old estate/zoo, on your R—it’s just a moderately pretentious, generic gate, but you can tell your friends.

Shortening the route: You can ride up from either the west or the south entrance, ride as far as you like, and turn around.  Locals mostly seem to do this on the west side, but it’s a harder climb.  You can shave a few miles by driving to the start of the climb, on either route.  Happy Canyon Rd. would be a lovely out and back if the road surface was tolerable.

Adding miles:  Solvang is a famous riders’ destination, because the weather is balmy, the scenery is bucolic, and the hills roll sweetly.   The Solvang Century introduces you to the riding in the area, though I think a lot of the route is only so-so.   Pretty much any road in the area that isn’t too trafficky is good riding.  Ballard Canyon Rd., one end of which is a stone’s throw from Los Olivos (and part of the century route), is the second-best ride in the area, a short but ridiculously fun and picturesque rolling ride celebrated for being part of the course for the Tour of California time trial when it was held in Solvang in the early years of the race.  I bet it’s even more fun at 35 miles an hour, but I’ll never know.  A very nice ride (and also part of the century route) is Santa Rosa Rd., along the edge of a beautiful little pocket valley just south of Buellton.  It’s a wind tunnel, so it can be frightfully windy, normally out of the west.  At its western end you’re a stone’s throw on Hwy 1 from the Jalama Road ride.  One of the most popular rides is Foxen Canyon Rd., but I found it less wonderful than the other riding in the area (too straight).  Maybe if it were somewhere else I’d love it.  If you do ride Foxen, at the northern end you pass the turn-off to our Tepusquet Rd. ride, which is much better.

Afterthoughts:  There is no water source on this ride, with the possible exception of the Ranger Station.  Plan accordingly.

Solvang itself is a precious, touristy re-creation of a Scandinavian village—a fun place to hang out in for a while, with many great bakeries, but I prefer to lodge in Buellton, just down the road, where the motel chains are good old Amurrican and the prices much lower.  Solvang has a bike shop where you can buy a Mt. Figueroa jersey if you want to commemorate your achievement.

Distance: 26 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 1820 ft

This ride climbs out of Cambria (pronounced both “KAMM bree uh” and “KAYM bree uh” by the locals), one of those amazing little enclaves of culture and fine dining (and Internet-based bicycle supply stores—yes, it’s that Cambria) that somehow manages to get established far from anywhere.    There’s one bike ride here, but it’s a beaut.  It climbs from the shore high up into the coastal hills to a summit saddle with spectacular vistas of whence you came.

It’s four rides in one. The first 5 miles are dead easy, nearly flat cruising through a farming valley (blissfully free of vineyards)—you’ll probably see obviously non-serious riders out for a stroll.  The next 5 miles are a roller-coaster through riparian woods.  Then you do a classic canyon creekside climb.  And finally it turns to hard, hard climbing in the final miles before the summit, as you ride what the locals call The Wall.

This road is an alternative to the main route via Hwy 1 and Hwy 46, so all the through traffic takes the highways and after the first few miles of farms you have the road to yourself, save for the occasional hardy car driving up to the summit to gawk at the view.

Begin in downtown Cambria (might as well—it’s a great place to stroll, eat, and shop).  Ride south out of town on Main St. and go L onto clearly-signed Santa Rosa Creek Road as soon as you’re really out of town.

You begin in bucolic farm country

The route rides up a  valley that  narrows steadily until it disappears and you’re riding up a steep draw. So you begin rolling gently past pretty cattle farms.  At Mile 5 you pass Linn’s Farmstore, a classic country “gift shop” and pie emporium, and just before then the road begins to get smaller and go up and down and back and forth deliciously, and the scenery turns dense, gorgeous riparian canopy.  This is my favorite leg of the ride.

At Mile 10 (at the Soto Ranch—the name is over the gate, along with “Since 1910,” though the place looks brand new) the valley abruptly disappears, you cross the creek and the road becomes an uninterrupted, serious climb up the narrow canyon.   After a while of this, the road goes unmissably from medium hard to very hard—like, 14% at times, and probably never less than 10%—to the turn-around at an obvious saddle.   It’s a short but truly tough pitch.  How hard is it?  Consider: the ride totals about 2400 ft of gain, and it’s mostly in these two miles (it’s 870 ft of gain to Soto Ranch).

The scenery, after the first few miles, is varied but consistently marvelous, and the views from The Wall and the summit are jaw-dropping—perhaps the best vistas in Bestrides after the Tamalpais ride.

Then you ride through riparian woods

Finally you climb through magnificent vistas (and over lousy pavement)

This profile is plenty good enough to get this ride into our Best of the Best list, were it not for the road surface.  It constantly varies, from glass to chipseal to nasty pothole-strewn, and there’s enough of the latter to drop it off the Best Of list.

At the summit, drink in the views, then decide what you want to do from here.  My route has you returning the way you came, but see Adding Miles for some very attractive alternatives.  As I’ve mapped it, it’s an almost pedal-free trip, and parts of it are excellent descending.   Not the Wall itself—descending 14% pitches on broken pavement is no fun—but much of the descent back to Soto Ranch is very good, and the five miles between Soto and Linn’s Farmstore is one of my favorite roller-coaster rides, constantly up and down and back and forth, better than the ride out because now it’s downhill so you’re carrying a head of steam, and with the pavement problems only slightly dampening your giddy enthusiasm.  The last 5 miles in, like the first 5 miles out, are merely pleasant.

Consider stopping at Linn’s Farmstore for a snack—the store is a masterpiece of kitsch, though I think the pie is actually lousy (heavy crust, too sweet).

Shortening the route: The ride profile allows you to dial in your preferred level of work/pain: easy (first 5 miles), medium (first 10 miles), serious climbing effort (first 13-ish), or brutal (to the top).   Of course the harder/further it gets, the better it gets.  Funny how that happens.

Adding miles: If you don’t want to ride back, there are four other possibilities, all tempting in their way.

At the turn-around point you are standing on a leg of the Santa Rita Rd./Cypress Mountain Rd. ride.  Option 1: if you want just a bit more riding, continue on past the summit and ride 3.7 sweet miles of SR/CM backwards to the intersection with Hwy 46.  This stretch is a bowl: it drops sharply for a bit through dense woods, then rolls through a pretty valley of grassy fields and oaks, then climbs up to Hwy 46.  The road surface is at first poor, though nothing like what you’ve just ridden over, and soon it gets downright OK.  If you turn around at Hwy 46, the only cost to adding this leg to the ride is the climb back to the summit, which is noticeable.

Santa Rosa Creek Road, between The Wall and Hwy 46

Option #2: Continue on the Santa Rita/Cypress Mountain route, in either direction.  If you do the entire loop, you’re in for a long day, but it’s totally possible.  Riding the Cypress Mountain Rd. leg will leave you at a spot on the Adelaida Rd./Chimney Rock Rd. loop.

Option 3: At the turn-around point of Option 1, you can cross Hwy 46 and continue on Old Creek Rd. to Cayucos, a tiny hamlet with a bit of a cult following.  Christopher (below) says, Great tacos.  Old Creek Rd. is surprisingly big and surprisingly trafficky for what looks like a back road, but as a descent it’s good.

But now you have to get back to Cambria.  If you can arrange a car pick-up, Cambria to Cayucos via Santa Rosa Creek Rd. and Old Creek Rd. is only a bit harder than the route I’ve mapped.  If not, you’re going to have to 1) ride 16 not-too-rewarding miles of Hwy 1, or 2) ride back the way you came, which involves you in 51 miles out and back, with 13 miles of climbing, much of it hard, on the way back and a Mapmyride estimate of 5030 ft gain overall.   Not undoable, but not to be undertaken lightly, and I don’t find Old Creek Rd. at all rewarding uphill.

Cypress Mountain Road, just west of the summit—click on to appreciate

Option 4: if you get to the top of The Wall and you’ve got just a bit of legs left and want a change of pace, consider riding the one mile of dirt from Santa Rosa Road to the summit of Cypress Mountain Rd. and back (see the Santa Rita/Cypress Mt. route for details).  The vistas from the top are staggering—like the vistas from the top of The Wall, squared.  The road surface is smooth, but it’s steep and loose, so traction is iffy without wider tires.

Notice I don’t mention returning to Cambria via Hwy 46.  It’s a very straight, steep, exposed, busy, and usually blustery descent, so you’d be doing 45 mph amid traffic, bored while fighting for control.  Not my idea of a good time. Nor do I mention riding Hwy 1 in either direction from Cambria—there is lots to do off the bike, but the riding itself is dead boring.

For an easy cool-down after Santa Rosa Creek Road, or for an effortless recovery-day jaunt, hit Moonstone Beach Drive, which runs along the ocean heading north from the north end of Cambria.

For other riding options in the Paso Robles area, see the Adding Miles section of the Peachy Canyon Road ride and the discussion of Paso Robles as a riding destination in the “Planning the One-Week Bicycle Vacation” section of Bestrides’ home page.

Distance: 21 miles out and back
Elevation gain: 2280 ft (RWGPS)

(A Best of the Best ride)
(A Best of the Best descent)

This, the most aptly named ride in our list, is the peachiest climb around Paso Robles (pronounced “PASS-o ROH-bulls,” called just “Paso” by locals), a region of good riding among hilly vineyards.  It’s a lot like the Robinson Canyon ride—a perfect little two hours of climbing and descending.

Peachy Canyon Rd. has no extraordinary features, and there isn’t a “Wow” moment in the scenery (Robinson Canyon’s landscape is much more striking)—it’s just very nice, conventional riparian oak woodlands, nothing you haven’t seen before.  It’s the road contour that makes the ride special, 21 miles of sweetly varied, always-interesting, not-too-hard up and down and back and forth on a perfect road surface.  It’s so flawless it feels like a Virtual Reality ride.

Nothing extraordinary, just perfect

Peachy Canyon Rd. one way is a simple Bactrian Camel (i.e. two-humper) ride: climb/descend/climb/descend.  The climbing is all moderate, though there is a fair amount of it (2280 ft of gain in 10.5 miles of up).  The road works its way up a small creek canyon (at least it looks like a creek should be down there—I can’t see any water) past wineries and through nice riparian oaks.   There are perhaps 8 wineries along the ride, and Peachy Canyon Rd. is a main route from Paso to the rest of the western wine country, which means I wouldn’t do this ride on a weekend when the wine tourists are out.  Any other time, it’s pretty empty—on a gorgeous Fall Thursday I saw 10 vehicles in 21 miles.

Are you old enough to remember when seeing vineyards was exciting?

Where there are vineyards, there are examples of the waller’s art

At road’s end, you’ve got good riding in either direction (see Adding Miles), but wherever else you ride, make sure you come back to this spot, because you must not miss the Peachy Canyon Rd. descent, which is one of the best descents in Bestrides.  In places it’s a perfect slalom course—the road surface is glass, the contour is constantly varied and interesting, the pitch is just steep enough so you can rip it without much braking, every curve is sweetly banked, and the sight lines are excellent so oncoming cars don’t catch you out.

Peachy Canyon Road

Adding miles: From the west end of Peachy Canyon Rd. you’re a short ride up Vineyard Dr. from our Adelaida Rd./Chimney Rock Road ride.  Also near you are Willow Creek Rd. (which Tammy below says has just been repaved—3/21), Vineyard Drive to your R (busiest road in the area and best ridden downhill), and Jack Creek Rd.  Nacimiento Lake Drive is a big, busy road, only suitable as a connector to something better.

If you hate out-and-backs and you’re set up for dirt, you can loop Peachy by riding it one way, then returning via Kiler Canyon Rd, which intersects PCR near PCR’s west end and returns to Paso via some nice canyon scenery.  It’s all gravel for its western two-thirds.  Of course I would never give up the PCR descent, so I’d only do this riding up Kiler, down Peachy.  An even bigger loop including Peachy is laid out by Tammy in her comment below.

Nothing on the west side of Paso Robles is flat, so if you want flatter (or you’re just sick of vineyards) look to the east, as Gandalf told Aragorn.  The riding to the northeast of Paso is good if you avoid the straight roads on the map and stick to those that meander, like Estrella Rd., Cross Canyon Rd., and Hog Canyon Rd.  While you’re in that area, the mission is worth a visit.  The ride to Parkfield is well-regarded—do it as an out and back, and schedule it for when the Parkfield Cafe is open so you can sample their famous burgers.  Southeast of Paso, the loop around Santa Margarita Lake (W. Pozo Rd>Parkhill Rd.>Las Pilitas Rd.) is reputed to be good riding, especially in the spring.  Don’t fail to stop and check out the Pozo Saloon, a local institution.

A good introduction to the region’s riches is the Great Western Bike Rally, a four-day gathering of riders who camp at the Paso Robles fairgrounds and do pick-up rides in all directions.

You’re 30 miles via Hwy 46 from Cambria and the Santa Rosa Creek Road ride.  Or our Santa Rita Rd./Cypress Mountain Rd. ride will let you ride to it.  There is also good (not great) riding around San Luis Obispo—the Wildflower Century route (not to be confused with “the Wildflower,” a century out of Chico and the basis for our Table Mt. ride) and the San Luis Obispo Bicycle Club (SLOBC) website are good places to find routes.

Afterthoughts: All three communities mentioned here—Paso Robles, Cambria, and San Luis Obispo—reward a visit.  Cambria is a hamlet, Paso is a large town, and SLO is a city, but each has its (substantial) charms.  Cayucos, a miniscule village south of Cambria, has a cult following and is worth a visit—check out the fish tacos.

At the base of Peachy Canyon Rd—English translation: “Don’t do this ride on a weekend”