Distance: 9 miles out and back Elevation gain: 1390 ft
At last count there were 2,347 roads on the West Coast named Mill Creek Road. Bestrides has three: the Mill Creek Road by Lassen National Park, the Wine Country one in the Adding Miles section of the Pine Flat Road ride, and this one. All three are super-sweet little rides.
This Mill Creek Road is out of Fremont, CA. It was a gift to me from Friend of Bestrides Nabeel, in gratitude for the rides Bestrides had shown him. Isn’t that lovely? It’s one of the shortest rides in Bestrides, but mile for mile it’s as good as any—4 miles of meandering, recently re-paved (though still lumpy) one-lane gorgeousness that wanders through riparian oaks along a little creek you can’t see and alongside typical East Bay rolling hills of grass. The profile is one of constant variety, always turning, climbing, dropping—rarely can you see more than 1/10 of a mile ahead of you.
The only downside besides its skimpy length and lumpy surface is that it doesn’t link up easily with any other ride by bike besides Morrison Canyon, and Morrison Canyon is a worth-doing-once ride. So if you want a longer day of it, drive to MCR, then drive to another nearby ride (Calaveras Road, for example). Or be prepared to ride some distance on surface streets (see Adding Miles). Or ride MCR twice, which isn’t as silly as it sounds.
MCR looks a lot like two beautiful rides nearby that I like a lot: it’s like the north side of Morgan Territory Road, but narrower and with smoother pavement (which are both good things); and it’s like Welch Creek Road but not nearly as steep (which is a good thing). Still, it’s an authentic climb—1400 ft in 4.5 miles, which averages out around 7%, but it’s harder than that sounds because it’s typically 8-10% for a while, then 3%, then 8-10%, in stair steps.
The landscape is mostly undeveloped—a couple of working farms and 4-5 gated mansions mostly hidden from view—and you’ll spend most of the ride in a beautiful oak canopy. The road ends at a locked gate, so expect to see no more than a car or two, but it’s a popular walking route for locals, so expect to share the road with lots of strollers later in the day on weekends.
There is no mill on this ride. Or on the other two Mill Creek Road rides in Bestrides.
I’ve received a couple of emails saying that this ride is unsafe for bikes, that riders have been killed, that it’s full of deadly snakes, that it’s been ruined by wildfires, and so on. As far as I can tell, it’s all lies (told by locals trying to discourage cyclists, I’m assuming), so I haven’t posted them.
I’ve mapped the ride from the base of the climb, but unless you live in the area you’ll probably start from the Fremont BART station. From the station to MCR is 4 miles of flat or slight incline through typical, not-unpleasant urban residential with good bike lanes—a perfect warm-up.
Mill Creek Road itself starts climbing immediately. The road is narrow enough that there are paved turn-outs to facilitate cars passing each other, and it’s never straight. It rolls up and down for a while before settling in to an extended climb, but still there’s a lot of variety in the pitch so you never get bored.
You pass a vineyard that catches you by surprise and immediately deadend at a gate, beyond which the road is unpaved. Whether you can continue on a gravel bike is uncertain—one sign reads “Entering regional park, no hunting or shooting,” which certainly implies you may proceed, but another sign reads “No public access.” You make the call. It appears to be the Mission Peak Regional Preserve, if that helps, and the second half of Mill Creek Road is its northern border.
The descent is a mixed bag. The top half (the section above the one hard 90-degree turn—easily seen on the route map) is much steeper than the bottom half, and rougher (not broken pavement, but lumpy), so it’s mostly braking and teeth-rattling. Below the hard turn, things are much better—the pitch is shallow enough that you can really rip it, the turns don’t require much braking, and the road surface, while still far from smooth, can be endured. In many places it’s literally breath-taking—I think it’s possible to get airborne in a place or two—and would be a best-of-Bestrides descent if they paved it properly. It’s a descent that’s much better the second time, because the first time you have to be cautious. So if there was ever a time when you did a ride twice, this is that time. Once you know the road, you can carry a lot of speed safely. You can top 30 mph without pressing at all, and that’s a lot on a curvy one-laner.
Shortening the route: You’d think you’d have to be nuts to want to shorten a 4.5-mile route, but it turns out there’s some wisdom in doing exactly that. Since the road above the hard 90-degree turn is steeper and rougher that the road below it, coming down that top section isn’t much fun, so you might consider turning around at the turn and just riding the good stuff. An added bennie: you can now ride the good stuff twice.
Adding Miles: As I said, there’s really only one ride easily reachable by bike from MCR, Morrison Canyon Rd., which is short and a bit of a novelty. There’s wonderful riding to the south of you, if you’re willing to ride some miles on surface streets: (from north to south) Felter, Sierra (both discussed in the Sierra Road ride), and Mt. Hamilton, the last being 17 miles south of MCR.
Distance: 49 miles out and back Elevation gain: 6640 ft
This ride is very much a matter of taste. It may be one of your favorite rides, ever. You may hate it. It all depends on how much you value isolation, pristine forest, sketchy road surface, and serious elevation gain. It’s one of the hardest rides in Bestrides—roughly 12 miles of tough climbing, not counting the rollers, and a total vert of 6640 ft.
This ride is for people who like to get off the grid. As in, no cell service. No road signs, at all, of any kind. No people, no buildings, no fences, no foot paths, no trail heads, no no trespassing signs, no private property signs, not even turn-outs. I encountered vehicles 4 times in 48 miles. If it weren’t for the pavement under you, you’d swear no one had ever been there. Needless to say, there is no opportunity for reprovisioning. So be self-sufficient, and tell someone where you’re riding.
Burnt Mountain Road is small
It’s 48 miles of basically one-lane road through dense woods varying from pretty to stunning, punctuated by a couple of clear-cuts you will welcome for the vistas they provide. The pavement is OK to poor—never terrible but always noticeable—which is the ride’s Achilles heel. Expect to ride slowly, savoring the solitude and the beauty and picking your way around the problem spots. It’s not a pain at slow speeds, but you can’t bomb the descents. This isn’t a “whee” sort of ride. You need a hiking mentality. Incidentally, despite the road’s name I saw no evidence of forest fire damage anywhere on the route.
And remember, Oregon back back roads are there to facilitate logging. Oregon didn’t get the memo about how the logging industry is dead. There is the occasional clear-cut on this ride, and those clear-cut logs have to get down that road somehow. They are either actively logging in the area or they aren’t. They weren’t when I was there, and the place was as unpopulated as the moon. If they are logging, obviously it’s different.
Even finding the ride is an adventure. Drive to the intersection of Coos Bay Wagon Road (see, it’s adventuresome already) and Reston Rd. Continue west on CBWR for 1.5 miles to the first paved road to the R, which has no signage at all—not even a forest service number. That is Burnt Mountain Road. It will change its name halfway through the ride to Burnt Ridge Road, but it won’t matter because there are no signs. But there is only one paved road and you can’t get lost.
You’d never get vistas if it weren’t for the few clear-cuts
The profile is simple: you begin by climbing vigorously for 4 miles. If you don’t, you’re on the wrong road. From a kind of summit you roll up and down to about mile 12 and another kind of summit. You might well consider turning around here, which would give you 24 miles and a noticeable workout, because if you continue, the climb back up is major. But if you turn around you will miss the high point of the ride: the idyllic 6 miles along Tioga Creek.
Tioga Creek Road
Continuing on from Mile 12, you descend steeply to mile 19, where the road forks, the L fork crosses a small but unmissable bridge and the R fork (completely unsigned, of course) follows Tioga Creek (unmarked) for six of the sweetest, most beautiful miles I’ve ever done on a bike, at the end of which the pavement ends and you T into South Coos River Road. SCRR looks sweet on the map but it is in fact private lumber company property with large No Trespassing signs (the only signs on the ride) and it has a road surface that is particularly gnarly gravel you wouldn’t want to ride even on a gravel bike. So ride to SCRR, then return to Burnt Ridge Road.
Tioga Creek Road
Tioga Creek Road is basically flat, which is good because you’re looking at about 8 miles of significantly hard climbing back to the top. The only way to avoid it is to cross the bridge when you get back to it and continue on Burnt Ridge and make a loop of it, riding Middle Creek Road (which BCR becomes) to McKinley, then riding through Dora and Sitkum on what finally becomes Coos Bay Wagon Road and back to your car. It’s only a bit longer and more climbing that going out and back (63 miles, 7125 ft.), but I haven’t seen it. Assuming you’re following my route, do the climb, enjoy the rollers, and descent the last 4 miles to your car. Remember, don’t expect the descent to be exhilarating.
Adding Miles: You could spend a summer riding the good roads in this area of Oregon, none of which I’ve done yet. The obvious addition is the loop described in the ride description above. Beyond that, this area is simply thick with delicious-looking small roads. Every tiny town—McKinley, Gravelford, Dora, Fairview, Myrtle Point—has two or three back roads heading out of it and begging to be explored.
The land west of Roseburg and Winston offers the usual endless miles of PPO (Perfectly Pleasant Oregon) riding—just pick any road that looks small and non-straight on the map.
Distance: 21 miles out and back Elevation gain:3860 ft
This is a pure climb—10 miles up, 10 miles down—whose prime virtue is the spectacular view of the Willamette Valley at the top. And let’s pause for a moment to praise the Oregon authorities, who spent the money to cut and pave this lovely road just to give us that vista. The climbing is mostly moderate and steady, and the descent is fast and tons of fun but with easy, sweeping turns, so it’s a great ride if you’re timid about descending at speed but want to give it a try. The first couple of miles are in that gorgeous west Oregon forest I love—then things dry out and are just pretty.
It’s a lot like the McKenzie Pass ride, so how do they compare? In brief, McKenzie is better. McKenzie is longer, the pitch is gentler, the forest is much prettier, and the descent is curvier, better banked, and more thrilling. Marys Peak’s road surface is good; McKenzie’s is great. The views from the top are very different: the view at the top of McKenzie is level moonscape, whereas the view at the top of Marys is valley far beneath you, Both rides are moderately trafficky. McKenzie is one of the best rides in the world, whereas MPR is merely very good.
Since a large part of the appeal here is the vista from the summit, try to do the ride on a day with clear weather or high cloud cover only. This is harder to do that at first appears. Marys Peak seems to be in some sort of pocket of rain, fog, and mist. On days when the rest of western Oregon is under warm sunshine, Marys Peak may be rainy and cold. Both times I’ve ridden it, I’ve taken more clothing than I thought I needed, and both times I was cold, and once I got soaked. Both times I was in sunshine just miles from the ride.
Sometimes this road is favored by sports cars playing race car on weekends. There’s plenty of room, so they won’t endanger you. Riding on a weekday should cut down on the sports cars but may just trade one irritant for another—on my Saturday ride there were no trucks but signs of active logging (in August, 2019). On a Sunday in 2024 I saw neither logging nor sports cars. In any case, there is room.
There is a serious question about where to start this ride. If you ride from Philomath (fuh LO muth) on Hwy 34, the scenery is excellent and the two miles before the Alsea Mountain Summit, where Marys Peak Rd starts, are fabulous—challenging, steep esses through forest prettier than MPR itself. The only drawback is traffic—Hwy 34 can be very busy, there is no shoulder, there are no sight lines, and there is no room for you at all. Unless you can catch the road at a time of slack traffic, it’s unpleasant and dangerous. Without cars, it’s a dream, especially descending. When I was there, on a summer Saturday, at noon the road was constant cars; at 5:30 it was deserted. It’s your call. Because I can’t guarantee your safety, I’ve mapped the ride from Alsea Mt. Summit. I wouldn’t ride up to Alsea Mt. Summit from the south side—it’s a tedious slog.
Begin in Oregon rain forest. It doesn’t last.
Park at the beginning of Marys (no apostrophe) Peak Road. There are nice paved parking areas on both sides of the road. You get a half mile of mild climbing before the work starts, but if you need more warm-up you’ll have to ride back and forth on Hwy 34 around the summit and on the first half mile of Marys, because once the real climbing starts, it’s an effort.
The road stays fairly steep for the next 2.5 miles—around 8%, with moments of 10-12%. It’s just across the line between fun and work, and it’s the steepest leg of the ride. When you reach an unexpected mile of quick descending, the hard work is over and it’s moderate to the summit. The pitch both before the descent and after is unvaried.
The view from the summit, looking northeast
As you ascend, appreciate how the microclimate keeps changing. Things get drier and rockier as you move up and through belts of madrone, alder, fireweed, and foxglove.
Around 8 miles in you pass through a small saddle and get a stunning view of the land to the south (on your R—see photo below). Savor it, because this is the only view to the south you will get on the ride. The view from the end of the road looks east.
The view from the summit looking east over the Willamette Valley
Continue to the top, which is a parking lot with picnic tables, outhouses, and hiking trailheads. The view to the east is one of the grandest in my experience. You can see 50 miles or more. It’s on a par with the grandest vistas in Bestrides. To the south of the parking lot is a small hill blocking your view, so to see the southern panorama you’ll have to do a little hike, easy if you’ve brought walking shoes and a bike lock.
The descent is fast, bendy, and fun without ever being scary or technical. You’ll do little braking, even though you’ll be doing 30+ mph much of the time, because the curves are big and gentle, and the road is roomy enough that traffic is never a concern.
Shortening the route: Since the goal here is the vista from the summit, start as far up the road as will allow you to get to the top.
Adding miles: Hwy 34, which goes by the foot of Marys Peak Road, is a long, dull ascent/descent on the south side and a marvelous but dangerously trafficky serpentine on the north side. A few miles to the south via 34 is the turn-around point of our Alpine to Alsea ride. The Corvallis area offers endless PPO riding (Perfectly Pleasant Oregon) among the farms and ranches along the edge of the Willamette Valley.
Marys Peak Road: looking south from the saddle mid-ride
Distance: 20 miles out and back Elevation gain: 2270 ft
This isn’t a great ride, but it’s perfectly pleasant. It climbs over two small summits, and drops down into the actual town of Coulterville, which consists of about 8 buildings. The scenery is only OK, mostly scrub brush hillsides, and frankly I include it in Bestrides for only one reason: of all the rides I’ve done in the area, it’s the only one with consistently decent pavement and little traffic. It’s unshaded, so I wouldn’t do it on a hot summer afternoon.
Start at the Priest Station Cafe and Store (really just a cafe). There is parking for 3-4 cars off to the side. Ride to Coulterville (there is one intersection along the way—go R.). After about a mile, the route is through rolling hillsides totally carpeted by a shrub called chamise or greasewood, fairly uninteresting except in blooming season (May-early June), when it makes quite a show.
Coulterville itself is of some slight interest. It’s tiny, but incredibly it includes a hotel, a saloon, a spa, a historic train engine, and a “boulangerie” along with the inevitable general store and antique shop. The saloon claims to be the oldest operating saloon in California (est. 1851).
Shortening the ride: You probably won’t, but if you do, all the miles are pretty much the same so turn around whenever you want to.
Adding Miles: From Priest you’re 3 miles from the turn-around point of the Ward’s Ferry Road ride, a much bigger and far more dramatic ride.
Priest Station lies at the summit of Old Priest Grade, a harrowing and spectacular ride detailed in the Adding Miles section of the Ward’s Ferry Road ride.
Distance: 30 miles, wandering route Elevation gain: 2840 ft
A general word of warning about riding in the Southern Southern Gold Country: every back road I’ve ridden south of Jesus Maria Rd. (which was bad but just got resurfaced) has stretches of pavement ranging from poor to comically horrible. That includes every Bestrides ride in the area—Ward’s Ferry, this one, and others like Dogtown Rd (not so much Priest-Coulterville). If poor pavement bothers you, ride somewhere else.
This ride lies just west of our Ward’s Ferry Road ride, but it couldn’t be more different. Ward’s Ferry is a straight down-and-up crossing of a big canyon. This ride wanders around in a warren of old farming roads that roll up and down constantly over endless little hills. It’s never flat, and it never climbs or descends for long.
It’s harder than the profile makes it look, because short, steep rollers wear you out, and because the road surfaces here are poor, and that beats you up. The up side is, this isn’t your yuppified Gold Country. There are next to no gated mansions, vineyards, Lexuses—just oak and grassland, unpretentious folk, beat-up pick-ups, and horses and cows in the fields.
There is nothing magical about my route. I just tried to link as many of the roads in the area as I could. My route has you riding everything of note except Algerine Wards Ferry Rd., which you can easily add as an out and back.
Start at the intersection of Old Ward’s Ferry Road and Jacobs Rd. You can start at the northern end of OWFR if you want to, but it’s very unpleasant multi-lane frenetic urban. Half a mile past Hwy 108, you’re in the country.
Old Ward’s Ferry Rd. is the second-worst road surface on the ride, and it’s immediately up and down, so it’s hard on an unwarm body. Nothing on this ride lasts very long, however, so soon you go R onto Murphy Rd. and things are much better though not perfect. Go right on Lime Kiln Rd. and go up and down, mostly up, until you’re in the shadow of Hwy 108, where Campo Seco Rd. goes L along the highway.
Campo Seco is a horse of a different color. It runs along upscale housing tracts on one side, so it’s bigger, domesticated, busier, and glassy smooth.
Go L on Algerine and roll to Twist Rd. At the intersection is a chance to pick up Algerine-Ward’s Ferry Rd. (not on our route)—just keep riding past the Twist turn-off.
Whatever you do, don’t miss Twist Rd.—it’s the best road in this bunch. The road surface isn’t perfect, but it’s good enough that you can finally bomb some descents.
Twist Rd. ends at Jacksonville Road, for all intents and purposes a highway, though not a heavily trafficked one. It’s not thrilling, and the pavement is new chipseal, but it’s OK and the views (of the canyon holding an arm of an arm of an arm of Don Pedro Lake) are good—the only time on this ride where you can see further than across the meadow beside you.
Stay on Jacksonville as it becomes the Stent Cut-Off (surely somebody’s idea of humor) and returns to Algerine. Go L and ride back on Algerine to Camp Seco, Campo Seco to Lime Kiln, and down Lime Kiln, but only a mile plus to the Jacobs Rd. cut-off back to your car.
Jacobs is not to be missed—perhaps a third of a mile of the worst road surface I have ever experienced. Absolute misery. It’s easier and more pleasant to walk it, but ride it just so you can tell your friends you did.
Shortening the route: Except for Twist, none of these roads is markedly superior to any other. The southwest loop might be slightly superior to the northeast loop.
Adding miles: This ride takes you within yards of our Ward’s Ferry Road route, a ride I would certainly do before I did this one. In Sonora you are 6 miles from Big Hill Road out of Columbia, a 10-mile out-and-back consisting of a four-mile moderately challenging climb followed by 6 miles of easy rollers, with fabulous views of the lands to south—the best vistas in all my Gold Country riding. It would be a Bestrides-worthy ride, but it’s cursed with the same unfortunate Calaveras County pavement as this ride—not intolerable but bad enough to turn an otherwise wonderful 4-mile descent coming back into something merely good. If you’re near Columbia, don’t miss little Sawmill Flat Road, unique in the region (in my experience) for having easy rollers, lush scenery, and pristine road surface.
Distance: 20-mile out and back Elevation gain: 1410 ft
Most of the rides in Bestrides are fairly taxing, not because I need to be taxed, but because most really good scenery goes up and down. But there are a blessed few rides that offer ample rewards without requiring work (consult the nearly-flat rides list on the Best of the Best page). Huasna Road is one. A mere 20 miles of mostly imperceptible climbing or descending, with one 1-mile moderate hill near the turn-around, it’s perfect for a recovery day or a day with the non-riding spouse, yet the road contour is so seductive (gentle rollers, no long straights) and the scenery so gorgeous (oat-dotted grassy hillsides, riparian oak canopies) that I guarantee even the most hardened of hammerers will be charmed. A perfect ride for the day after you do the thrill-fest that is Prefumo Canyon Road. The descents from the summit of the little hill are wonderful in both directions, definite Best of Bestrides descents if they weren’t so heartbreakingly short.
A side benefit of this ride is that it motivates you to go to the town of Arroyo Grande, where it starts. Admit it, you’ve never been there. It turns out to be a bustling, sweet little village with oodles of charm, an ice cream parlor, a gyro stand, a fish taco restaurant, and a patisserie, well worth a post-ride stop.
Two words of caution. 1) I did this ride in April, when the hillsides were green and the wildflowers lush. It might be a bit less stunning in the dead-brown grass of California’s summer. 2) The prevailing wind in this area is westerly, and it can snort, so I would consult the weather with a particular eye on the predicted winds, and plan my ride so I’m not doing the 10-mile return leg into the teeth of a gale.
A number of rides in Bestrides follow Huasna Road’s profile: park at the intersection of a main artery and a small, untrafficked road. Ride the untrafficked road through an agricultural valley, follow the valley until it turns into a narrow creek canyon, follow the creek up a gradually increasing pitch until it turns into an actual climb, ride to the end of the pavement, return. This profile always gives you a nice mix of flat, rolling, steep(er), open, wooded, inhabited, and isolated.
Do not begin at the beginning of Huasna Rd.—it’s big and busy. Drive down Huasna to where Huasna goes off to the R and Lopez Dr. continues straight. A sign at the T tells you that “Lopez Lake” is straight ahead. A sign on the R points to Huasna. Park before the turn, in a large dirt turn-out. Ride down Huasna. You will need to negotiate 3 intersections where you might have doubts—follow the signs to Huasna Valley in every case. Notice especially the second, at the intersection of Huasna, School, and El Rancho, where you go R—there’s a sign to Huasna as you approach the intersection in this direction, but when returning you get signs for School and El Rancho but none for Huasna and you have to take the unnamed fork.
For the first 4 miles you’re riding through small agricultural operations—pleasant enough but not particularly special—but then you get off the valley floor and into the trees, and it’s downright grand for the rest of the ride. You’re climbing, but so gradually you won’t notice until you ride it going the other way. About 8 miles in, you hit the one and only hill, about 3/4 mile at 4-7%—in other words, just enough to open up your legs. If you’re saving yourself for harder days, you can spin the entire hill without effort.
The descent down the backside is perfect—easy slaloming at 25-30 mph through lazy, banked esses on glass. Off the descent you debouche into Huasna Valley, which is very pretty, and Huasna itself, which is about 4 simple ranch houses. The road splits into two in the midst of “downtown,” and you turn around.
The climb back up the hill is about like the climb up the front side. Then the descent is just as sweet as the descent on the outbound leg was. The rest of the return ride is that sort of 2% descending where you don’t think you’re descending, you just think you’re on the best day of your life. Assuming you’ve timed it right and the winds aren’t bad.
Shortening the ride: I know the ride is already short, but there is a sensible way to make it shorter: drive the first 4 miles of Huasna, to where the road enters the canopy and begins to serpentine.
Adding Miles: Thanks to the fact that almost every road southeast of San Luis Obispo runs through pretty, gently rolling farm country, the opportunities for extending the Huasna ride are plentiful.
From our turn-around point, Huasna Rd. continues on past Huasna Valley, now smaller and much less developed. Apparently cyclists ride a lot of it, but it’s only paved for two more miles, and that pavement is only tolerable chipseal. The first mile is highly recommended, because the scenery is as good as what you’ve been through but it’s much more isolated. Go for the solitude. After that, the road climbs briefly to a summit and you can get an idea of what lies ahead of you if you continue. It looks pretty and wild. Back in Huasna, there’s a sign reading “End county-maintained road 14 miles ahead,” for what that’s worth. When I was last there (4/23), there was a sign at the beginning of the road saying “Road closed,” but I assume it’s tongue-in-cheek. But perhaps not. The winter of 2022-2023 tore up nearly every dirt road in California, so I wouldn’t venture out anywhere into the outback without a reliable report on road conditions.
One of the joys of riding around SLO are the people. While I was riding this leg, I stopped a car and asked the driver if the road was in fact closed ahead. She said, “I don’t think so. You can go for a really long way. There’s almost no one up there. It’s so pretty in there. You’re the smart one. You go and enjoy yourself.” I’m not making this up.
The other road out of Huasna is Huasna Townsite Rd. It runs for about 3 miles until it dead-ends, and the scenery seems fine, but the road surface is a particularly nasty kind of chipseal that seems to be pebbles instead of gravel. If you’ve dreamt of riding Paris-Roubaix, here’s your chance. I hated it.
From the start of our ride there are a several attractive options:
1. Ride 3 miles up Lopez Dr. (toward Lopez Lake), turn L on Orcutt Road, and ride Orcutt for 8 miles, then turn around. Orcutt is a perfect example of what I think of as open-country riding. It meanders peacefully up and down along big meadows, by small creeks, and past tidy family farms and vineyards. It’s not twisty or thrilling, but there’s a surprising amount of contour and the scenery is SLO rural at its best.
2. Ride 8 miles up Lopez Dr., past Lopez Lake, turn R onto Hi (not High) Mountain Rd. and ride it 6 miles to the end of the pavement. HMR is a mini-Huasna, easy and pretty but less gorgeous. Reportedly, locals ride Hi Mountain’s dirt all the way to Pozo. From what I saw of the dirt it’s in excellent shape, though I asked a local (in 4/23) if the dirt was good all the way to Pozo and she laughed and said, “Usually, yes; right now, no.” Lopez Dr. itself is a popular bike route that rolls through pretty country, so you won’t suffer riding it, but it’s a bit big and a bit busy and I would only choose to ride it to connect better stuff.
4. If you want a real challenge and adventure, just a stone’s throw down Hi Mountain is Upper Lopez Canyon Road, an absolute ball-buster of a ride. It’s a rough, narrow road, little more than a track, and it’s nastily up and down pretty consistently. Oddly, it’s covered by Streetview, so you can preview it. I rode it once, and once is enough.
5. If you turn L on Lopez Dr. instead of R from our starting point and head away from Lopez Lake, you soon hit Corbett Canyon Rd., a local favorite that parallels Orcutt and seems similar in ambience.
Orcutt Road
If you want to look further afield, the SLO area is particularly blessed with route resources, thanks mostly to the SLO Bicycle Club website. There you’ll find a list of favored local rides, though the 40-odd rides detailed there aren’t evaluated for quality or character. I have a paper ride map of the SLO area called the San Luis Obispo County Bike Map, and it’s a beauty. See if local bike shops still have copies. Downloadable maps of the area are at https://bikeslocounty.org/resources/maps/.
I’m delighted to add this ride to Bestrides for two reasons, beyond the obvious one that it’s great: a) it’s in an “under-represented” area of California—San Luis Obispo had no rides in Bestrides before this (there are now two, this and Huasna Road); and b) I was tipped off to it by a reader who told me I had to check it out, which is always my favorite way to discover a ride.
It’s a marvelous ride, full of everything we ride bikes for: beautiful woods, grand vistas, some easy rolling, some moderate climbing, a little tough climbing, some thrilling descending, a charming village at the turn-around—even a bit of rideable dirt. I didn’t put it in the Top Ten best of the best list, but I was sorely tempted. It’s a high-energy thrill-fest, along a creek through dense, magnificent riparian oaks, then up to a mountaintop where you can see forever, then down the back side through more oak canopy to the village of Avila Beach, a perfect spot for getting off the bike, having a bite, whale watching, and all the other things one does at the beach. The last time I was there, the humpbacks where coming out of the water to feed just off the beach.
For a 30-mile ride, it’s a bit of a workout. Most of the 3000 ft of climbing you do in 4 miles—the two miles on either side of the summit. You’ll touch 12% on the ride out and 11% on the return.
If you want to see green hillsides, the window is small. I am told that the SLO spring is very short-lived—two weeks or so. Apparently I was lucky to first do this ride in mid-April, when the wildflowers were flourishing and everything was green. But I’ve also done it in the fall and was similarly smitten.
This ride has possibly the grandest vistas in Bestrides after the Santa Rosa Road Wall and the Mt. Tamalpais ride. On a clear day from the summit you can see much of SLO spread out below you 10 miles to the east and Morro Bay and Morro Rock on the coast 10 miles to the west. Since much of the specialness of the ride is in the vistas, try to find a day with immaculately clear skies.
There’s no reason not to do the ride starting at the other end. It just means you hang out in Avila Beach at the end of the ride instead of at the turn-around.
You can start where Prefumo Canyon Road leaves huge Los Osos Valley Road, but it’s shoulder riding through generic residential/apartment complexes, so I drive the 1/2 mile down PCR to Castillo Ct., park curbside on Castillo, and ride from there. The first 3 miles are mellow ascending rollers, so you can warm up on them before doing anything hard. The scenery here is pretty oak riparian woods. Then it gets better, and better, and better.
From mile 3 to the summit (at c. 4.5 miles) you will work, but you won’t mind because there’s a lot going on. The road is never straight and never climbs at one pitch for long, so you get constant breaks and variations, the landscape opens up, and the vistas start. By the time you get to the hilltop summit, the view is unimpeded to the west, north, and east. If you like to complete things, there are short views to the south as well.
Looking north from the summit of Prefumo Road, with Cerro San Luis Obispo (?) in center
Roll across the hilltop for a short mile (with several mega-mansions for company), then begin the obvious descent down the back side. Of course you can turn around at the summit if your climbing legs are toast, but you don’t want to, because the rest of the road is really, really pretty. On the back side of the summit, the road surface, which has been unproblematic, goes to hell, but it doesn’t matter because it only lasts for about 1/4 mile and then you’re on dirt. I’m not big on dirt, but this is rideable (25 mm tires are a good idea), it only lasts a bit over a mile, and the oak canopy on the dirt leg is the best non-vista scenery on the ride. Near the end of the dirt a dirt road goes off to your R at a large gate and a road sign tells you Prefumo Canyon Road is ending and See Canyon Rd. beginning, but it’s easy to miss.
Pismo Beach and Pismo Rock, left, from Prefumo summit
When the dirt ends, you begin two miles of descending that is very different from the slope on the north side of the summit. This is relatively straight, therefore fast, with just enough bending to keep it from being boring (and one big esse curve to catch out the inattentive). It feels good, after all that work, to relax and let the bike rip. Once off the slope, you have 4 miles of effortless riding over easy rollers through a garden-pretty little canyon with oaks on one side and often old apple trees on the other. See Canyon apple cider is a local thing, and I encourage you to stop at one of the apple stands and sample it. I recommend the See Canyon Fruit Ranch. They’ve been making cider since 1894, so they’ve gotten really good at it.
See Canyon Rd. dead-ends at San Luis Bay Drive. Take it R for 1/2 mile until it dead-ends on Avila Beach Drive (unsigned). Take it to the R and ride the mile or two to town. When you get there you won’t be alone—Avila is the turn-around point for lots of local cycling routes.
As an alternative to San Luis Bay Drive, just before SLBD dead-ends at Avila Beach Drive it crosses the Bob Jones Trail (hard to see, heading off to your LEFT surprisingly), a paved rec trail that will take you straight into Avila if you want to avoid the sometimes-busy Avila Beach Drive. It’s very back-water, with informational plaques on the local geology, kids playing on their BMX bikes, a trail-side stream, and lots of root-broken pavement. It’s fun but not exactly road riding—I did much of it at 8 mph. For me it’s a do-it-once sort of thing—others swear by it.
On the ride back, the first few miles of See Canyon Rd. are dreamy, but the last 2 miles before the dirt are an unaltered, mostly straight grind at a pitch steep enough to make you work. It’s the only leg of the route I can’t say I enjoy. After the dirt, the short climb to the hilltop is murder—very steep on a bad surface—but, as I said, short. You can see the summit up ahead of you, which is a comfort.
The descent from the hilltop is at first a bit too rough, a bit too steep, and a bit too full of speed-scrubbing hairpins for aggressive riding. Mistakes can be costly. I overcooked a turn and crashed straight into a rock wall—if it had been an outside turn instead of an inside one, I might still be falling. Instead of maximizing speed, relax and take in the ambience, which is transporting. Once past the 2 miles of steep, the descending is great—descending rollers through pleasant esses at comfortable and controllable speed on unproblematic pavement. Castillo Ct. comes all too soon.
The rewards of the dirt leg
You’ll see some cars at the two ends of this route, and the hilltop is a popular place for nature lovers and their cars on weekends, but I didn’t find it to be a problem. Passing lines are good, and much of the route is almost deserted. Even in the road’s busiest season, traffic wasn’t at all bad.
Shortening the route: Ride to the summit and turn around, from either end. If you do this, I encourage you to come back the next day and do the other side.
Adding miles: From Avila Beach Drive the Pacific Coast Highway (the surface road that parallels Hwy 101, not Hwy 101 itself) runs north (toward SLO) and southeast (along the coast). Both directions have their charms and are worth riding. East is better. That way takes you to Pismo Beach, another charming village built around its pier, the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Preserve (unmissable on your R), and ultimately Grover Beach with its easy access to beachfront at Oceano Dunes Natural Preserve. There’s extensive exploring to be done among the seaside cottage cul-de-sacs and village side streets along the way.
From Avila Beach, Avila Beach Drive continues for another mile or so and dead-ends at Harford Pier, a charming, bustling wharf with sport fishing, an active pod of seal lions, and two fun restaurants, one at the end of the pier with a patio over the water. Much less touristy, more blue-collar, than Avila Beach.
Avila Beach
If you’re looking for rides further afield, the SLO area is particularly blessed with route resources, thanks largely to the SLO Bicycle Club website. There you’ll find a list of favored local rides, though the some 40-odd rides detailed there aren’t evaluated for quality or character. I have a paper ride map of the SLO area called the San Luis Obispo County Bike Map, and it highlights every ridable road in the area, though of course it doesn’t rank or grade the rides. See if local bike shops have copies. Downloadable maps of the area are at https://bikeslocounty.org/resources/maps/.
Prefumo Canyon Rd: Dropping off the edge of the hilltop on the return to SLO. Downtown SLO is barely visible on either side of the mound at 1:30
April 2025 note: sometimes road surface is everything. I’ve always liked this ride, but felt I had to apologize for the lousy tread of the descent down Howell Mountain Rd. to Pope Valley and the less obnoxious tread problems ascending Ink Grade. Happily I can now report that both roads have been gloriously resurfaced, are now glass, and are now both wonderful riding. That elevates the ride from good to great—hence the Best of the Best rating. Even better news: now that Ink Grade is glass, it’s become a top-tier descent—one of the best descents in Bestrides and one of the best I’ve ever done.
As with all the rides in the Wine Country and Marin County, try to do this ride in the spring, when the foliage is lush and green, the scotch broom is blooming, the vineyards are beginning to bud, and the temps are moderate. Of course it’s doable any time of the year, but in other seasons the scenery is merely pleasant, whereas in the spring it’s drop-dead gorgeous.
This ride is a bit of a grab bag. It strings together three climbs and three descents, each with its own character. Locals typically ride it as a one-way, from south to north, and continue on, as a part of pleasant longer routes we’ll discuss in Adding Miles. But I’m not crazy about those longer routes, so I’ve mapped it as an out and back dumbbell. The route includes Old Howell Mt. Rd., most of which is officially closed, to cars, bikes, and walkers, so if you like being naughty (as I do) this ride is for you. If you don’t crave wooly, off-piste riding, you might want to skip the entire western half of the route. There is also 1.6 miles of a nasty mix of heavy traffic and broken pavement which you must simply survive.
Because Old Howell Mt. Road is officially closed, many maps (including electronic ones) don’t acknowledge its existence. Also, various maps have various opinions about what it’s called. Just follow the route map and you’ll be fine.
Park just outside St. Helena at the intersection of Silverado Trail and Old Howell Mt. Road (which is also the intersection of ST and Pope St.). There’s a small dirt turn-out for parking at the end of Pope. At the intersection OHMR is signed simply Howell Mt. Road, but is signed Old Howell Mt. Rd. at its other end. RidewithGPS calls it “Howell Mountain Road South.” It climbs from the gun, so consider warming up on Silverado, the region’s primary recreational bicycle road, which is nearly flat and heavily trafficked but with an adequate-to-plentiful shoulder. It’s good, mellow riding in general and in the miles south of Pope is particularly sweet, so you may want to just keep riding ST, and I won’t think less of you for it, but we have bigger fish to fry.
Old Howell Mountain Road
A short leg up OHMR brings you to the intersection of OHMR and Conn Valley Rd. CVR is serious vineyard country, as evinced by the 20 wineries whose names hang from the unmissable sign at the intersection. It’s a pleasant road by itself, and it goes all the way to Lake Hennessey, so it’s worth riding some other day. Go L to stay on OHMR, and very soon you see a permanent sign that reads, “Road closed ahead: no vehicles, no bicyclists, no pedestrians.” Indeed, shortly thereafter you reach a permanent and serious gate across the road and a sign that reads “road very closed.” Getting around the gate is easy, but immediately beyond it you’ll swear the signs are right because you’re looking at a giant mound of dirt and no road in sight. Fear not. The mound is about 40 ft up and 40 ft down the back side (ride it if you have a gravel bike, walk it if you don’t), and after the mound the road reappears and is in remarkably good shape—lots of small cracks, lots of weeds growing through the median, and a few fallen limbs to dodge, but absolutely no risk.
A no-traffic guarantee
OHMR is a steady moderate climb through typical east Wine Country dry scrub. Watch for a nice open vista to the southeast, with Lake Hennessey in the distance. After 4 miles, OHMR dead-ends at a road that is Howell Mountain Rd. to the R and Deer Park Rd. to the L.
Here you have a choice. As I’ve routed it, you go straight across onto White Cottage Rd. and ride it for 4 miles to its end. White Cottage is a pleasant but not exciting steady climb through pretty, fairly developed terrain on a polished, wide two-lane road. The eponymous Cottage is nowhere in sight.
The alternative is to go R and take Howell Mountain Road through Angwin to the juncture of Ink Grade, White Cottage Rd., and HMR. The upside to HMR over White Cottage is, after Angwin the road contour is more interesting (curvier). The downside is, at least through Angwin, the traffic is heavier. Since you’re going to come back this way, I suggest you go up White Cottage and come down HMR.
Closed roads don’t get routine maintenance
Just before White Cottage dead-ends at Howell Mt. Rd., it crosses Ink Grade. Now you have one of the toughest decisions you’ll ever have on a bike. Do you descent Ink Grade (which used to be a no-no due to rough road surface but is now a superb ride), or do you continue on White Cottage to the intersection with Howell Mt. Rd. and do the descent of HMR, which is also a wonderful ride? Here are some things to consider:
Both descents are on glassy, perfect surface.
Both go to roughly the same place—Pope Valley Road..
HMR is much steeper (9-12%, compared to Ink Grade’s 4-8%).
HMR is curvier.
HMR is less varied—all pretty much the same pitch, the same amount of twistiness. Ink Grade is much more varied—no two corners are alike, lots of changes of pitch.
Ink Grade is much narrower—it’s a true wide one-lane, with no centerline. I’m not sure two cars meeting could pass each other. HMR is an obvious main route—two substantial lanes with centerline.
Because IG is narrower, it’s much less trafficked—seeing any cars at all is news-worthy—and it’s prettier (at least in the spring), because you’re more snugly in the woods.
I prefer Ink Grade, but I ‘m not a big fan of brake-burning plummets. I’ve mapped the route down HMR, but that was before the repaving.
At the bottom of HMR, at the tiny community of Pope Valley (which consists of a market in case you need ice cream, a garage with a sign that reads “since 1915,” an old barn advertising “blacksmith and wagonmaker,” and a vast automobile graveyard with some amazing old car bodies), go L on Pope Valley Rd., ride to Ink Grade on your L and go right on past it for 1/10 mi. to gawk at the spectacle that is Hubcap Ranch. Return to Ink Grade and ascent it. It’s a dream, as good as ascending gets—constantly reinventing itself, 4.1 miles of bliss through beautiful scenery, just hard enough to make you feel like you’re accomplishing something and with lots of changes in the pitch to vary the workload. With the new surface, I loved it so much I went back and did the climb the following day, something I never do. Don’t miss the tongue-in-cheek “Col de la Croix de Ink Grade” distance-and-elevation markers along the route.
At the top of Ink Grade, return to the White Cottage Rd./Howell Mt. Rd. intersection whichever way you didn’t ride up.
The ride’s one vista—looking southeast to Lake Hennessey from Old Howell Mt. Rd.
Now you are in for 1.7 miles of hell, the descent of Deer Park Rd. DPR is quite nice in places, but here it’s awful—lots of cars whizzing past you at 55 mph while you fight for control at 35 mph over steep, dangerously broken pavement and no shoulder. None too soon, bail out to the R onto Sanitarium Rd. (you’ll feel like checking in), which is heaven in comparison to what you’ve just done. Sanitarium used to be the best road surface on the route, but no more. Still, it’s pretty good, and it’s a fairly straight, very fast descent (40 mph if you want). It used to be almost car-free, but Siri has decided it’s a better route than Deer Park Rd. and is sending through traffic down it. And it’s built up, so the scenery is without interest. When it returns to Deer Park Rd, it’s a stone’s throw down DPR to Silverado Trail, which you take L back to your car.
Ink Grade
At the bottom of Sanitarium, there are a couple of little detours you can take to the R to add 3-4 miles to the route and avoid the little leg of Deer Park Road at the bottom of Sanitarium—first, Crystal Springs Rd., which seems to be a local favorite, and second, Glass Mountain Rd., which is shorter and I think a bit prettier. Both go north and run into the Silverado Trail, which you take L back to your car.
Ink Grade has a sense of humor
Shortening the route: Do either loop by itself—I recommend the northern loop. Or ride Ink Grade as an out and back—8 total miles of perfect climbing and descending..
Adding miles: On Pope Valley Rd. you’re in the midst of eastern Wine Country cruising country. The roads in every direction are popular riding routes. Continuing W on Pope Valley Rd. from Ink Grade, the riding is easy and lovely until the road turns into Butts Canyon Rd., at which point the road surface deteriorates and the landscape turns into post-forest-fire dreary—rolling hills full of dead tree trunks emerging from a sea of scrub brush. Butts will take you all the way to Middletown (16.5 miles), but I wouldn’t do it. Turning R on PVR from Ink Grade,, you soon reach Pope Canyon Rd and Chiles-Pope Canyon Rd., both staples of regional touring. I like the ride from Pope Valley down Chiles-Pope Canyon to Hwy 128 a lot, especially the descent from Chiles to 128. Hwy 128 will return you to the Napa Valley (I wouldn’t go the other way on 128—the traffic can be deadly, though the road contour is good).
Pope Canyon connects with Berryessa Knoxville Rd., which runs for 37 miles all the way to Clear Lake (where it’s called Morgan Valley Rd.), and locals have told me they’re ridden it in previous years, but I drove (not rode) the miles from Berryessa to Knoxville and I’m here to tell you, do not ride this road. The road surface, as of 6/25, is beyond horrible—it’s life-threatening. Do not trust the Streetview images—the road has been torn to pieces since they were taken. Morgan Valley Rd. itself (Knoxville to Lower Lake) is totally rideable as an out and back from Lower Lake, and the contour is nicely varied, but the scenery is poor, thanks to major fire damage, and the sun exposure is intense in hot weather.
Old Lawley Toll Road
You’re 11.5 miles down Silverado Trail from the Old Lawley Toll Rd, a tiny gem of a climb I absolutely love but which stands in the midst of a cycling wasteland (since Hwy 29 is unrideably trafficky) and is only 4 miles long. You don’t want to drive any distance to do 4 miles, so you should go bag it now while you’re in the neighborhood.
Just on the other side of St. Helena is Spring Mountain Rd./St. Helena Rd., a road which on paper looks like a perfect ride—small, relatively untrafficked, curvy. It’s all up then all down across the ridge between the St. Helena valley and the Santa Rosa valley, and it’s a pretty good ride with a couple of drawbacks that keep me from recommending it: 1) the climb up from St. Helena is really steep, steeper than I find fun either going up or going down (like, lots of 12%+); and 2) the pavement on the Santa Rosa side is uniformly lousy, the kind of lousy I find really interferes with my pleasure. If they would repave the west side of the summit, riding just it as an out and back would be a dream. But this is Sonoma County after all.
Distance: 35 miles out and back Elevation gain: 3925 ft
(A Best of the Best descent)
This is one of seven rides (all detailed in the Adding Miles section of the Mountain View Road post) that are worth doing around Boonville, a charming little town with good food and an interesting history, so I encourage you to find a place to stay in the area, make a cycling holiday out of it, and do all of them.
This ride has its drawbacks. The road is a little too trafficky, a little too wide, and a little too monotonous of pitch and a little too long climbing. But the pros outweigh the cons. The road contour is continuous mellow serpentining, the road surface is immaculate, the vistas in either direction are outstanding (Russian River Valley to the west, Clear Lake to the east), and the descents, on either side of the summit, are superb. I’ll put the descent on the east side up against any descent in Bestrides. It’s that good.
Which brings us to a dilemma: how do you ride a hill with a great descent on both sides? I’ve mapped it as an out and back, which is frankly asking a lot of your climbing legs and your patience. If you’re not up for that, you have three choices: a) arrange a shuttle and ride it one-way, and that way should be west to east; b) ride it as an out-and-back from base to summit, preferably on the east side; or c) do the loop I lay out in Adding Miles. Whatever you do, descending the east side should be your number-one priority.
The first miles
Park on Hwy 175 out of Hopland. The route is very mild climbing for the first 5 miles, but if you want more warm-up you can ride Old River Rd., a perfectly pleasant flat ride, running north and south off 175 (clearly signed—the southern leg soon dead-ends at Hwy 101, the northern leg runs forever).
Back on 175, the vineyards in the first 5 miles are particularly picturesque. After 5 miles you run out of valley, you hit a 180 turn and climb for 5 more miles to the summit at a moderate pitch (6-7%) that hardly varies. Watch for the vistas of the Russian River Valley below you as you climb, but if you miss them the vistas on the east side are grander.
Miles of this
Just before the summit, you pass an “Entering Lake County” sign. If you’re planning on turning around at the summit, continue on a while because the vistas in the quarter-mile past the summit, of Clear Lake to the east and the ridges and canyons to the north, are magnificent. Much of the landscape was burned in the 2018 Mendocino Complex fire, but you’ll hardly notice now.
Just past summit, looking down on Clear Lake and fire damage—click to enlarge
Again, the descent from the summit heading east is simply perfect. Perfect pitch, perfect curves, grand vistas, open sight lines, lovely rock cuts. Notice I have no photos of the east side—I wasn’t about to interrupt my bliss by stopping to take photos.
If you’re following my route, turn around and ride back to the summit. Both climbs are about 5 miles of serious pitch, but RWGPS says the elevation gain on the east side is less because you’re starting higher. Be that as it may, I promise you’ll get your fill of work.
The eastside climb—your road is in center and at 10:30. Click to enlarge
Back at the summit, there’s a sign that reads “9% grade, next 4 miles.” Having already climbed it, you know that’s not true—it averages maybe 7% at the most—but it’s a lovely descent, all smooth, sweeping, banked curves where you can hold your speed easily, and the traffic becomes a non-issue because you’re going as fast as they are. At the bottom of the descent you have 5 miles of perfectly sweet 2% descending to make you feel like a god on the bike.
Shortening the ride: ride from either end to the summit, then return. Again, I recommend the east side.
Added miles: As I mentioned, Old River Rd. near the beginning of the ride is pleasant, easy riding in either direction. Old Toll Rd. takes off from 175 on the R a couple of miles into our route and gives you 2.7 miles of lovely rambling on good pavement before it turns to dirt.
Speaking of Old Toll Rd., after it turns to dirt it wends its way all the way to the eastern terminus of Hwy 175, changing its name midway to Highland Springs Rd. If you like dirt, consider looping the route, riding one way on 175 and the other on Old Toll/Highland Springs. Here’s a map:
I think RWGPS’s got the pavement/dirt proportions exactly right.
The good news is, once on this road it’s impossible to get lost—there are no forks or options, in either direction. The bad news is, the 10 miles of dirt range from OK to nasty. I did it once, on a gravel bike, and it beat my brains out. I feel no need to ever do it again. Don’t even think about it on skinny tires. However, I was riding clockwise, when most of the dirt is rocky downhill—if you do the loop counterclockwise, most of the rocky stuff is a moderate climb and much less jarring. But you give up the east-side descent on 175. It’s a tough call.
At the east end of our ride, 10 pleasant miles down Hwy 29 is our Clear Lake to Cobb route, which by some devil’s logic is also Hwy 175. See the Adding Miles section of Clear Lake to Cobb for more riding in that area. Five miles to the north on Hwy 29 is a short, easy gem, Scotts Valley Road, a pretty, mostly flat saunter through old pear orchards—perfect for a family spin.
(Note 11/12/20: Geysers Road was a victim of the Kincaide Fire. Richard (in his comment below) says the landscape is OK.)
For a comparison of 4 climbs in the Wine Country—Pine Flat Road, Geysers Road, Ida Clayton Road, and Cavedale Road—see the introduction to the Ida Clayton Road post.
Many areas have the “Big Ride,” the one you do on the day you want to put in some miles and do some work. In the Wine Country, the Big Ride is Geysers Road (when it isn’t Stewarts Point/Skaggs Springs Rd.).
When I reached the beginning of the Geysers Road climb, I was stopped by a group of road maintenance guys and we got to talking. Did I really want to do this?, one of them asked. Geysers, he said, was a mess. Long and steep, with a surface that was at its best broken pavement, at its worst full of gravel, rocks, and fallen plant material, with frequent stretches of dirt road and spots of minimally repaired earthquake damage where the road “just falls off.” Also no water or other reprovisioning opportunities, and little to no cell service.
As it turns out, he was absolutely right, but it’s a wonderful ride nonetheless and nothing to be feared. Except for one hard mile of 14-15% climbing, all the elevation gain (c. 4000 ft) is thoroughly manageable, and the scenery is stunning. As with all Wine Country riding, the road surface is indeed poor, varying from sorta OK to wretched, but the worst of it is on the ascent, when you’re doing 5-7 mph and it’s not an issue. I found the earthquake sections geologically fascinating. And the isolation is a large part of the appeal—after I passed the turn-off to the gravel pit 3 miles in I can’t remember seeing a single vehicle. (Mike below says 2021 saw a major patching of potholes and the road surface is now better.)
If you have everyone’s image of the Wine Country—vineyards, gently rolling hills, old farm houses, everything neat as a pin—forget it. Geysers is a wild and woolly climb up the side of a creek canyon, followed by a few ridge crossings and mad descents through more canyons, all barren of signs of humanity (one house, one thermal power plant). No wine tasting here. You do, however, get that stereotypical Wine Country riding experience on the Geysers Rd.-to-Cloverdale leg.
You want to ride Geysers from north to south. The road is in two halves with very different characters. The north side (up to the Geysers Resort Road turn-off) is narrow, mellow of pitch, rough, and winding. The south side is steep, wider, straighter, and smoother (though not smooth). So riding from south to north robs you of most of the road’s rewards: instead of a charming, curious, and mellow ascent and a speedy, relatively smooth descent, you get a steep, relatively featureless slog up to the summit, followed by an unpleasantly rough descent. You’ll see riders beginning at the south end, but I suspect they’re riding to the summit and back. This is fine if all you want is a workout, but the north side is by far the prettier and more dramatic.
By the way, you won’t see geysers. You’ll see some developed thermal activity in the distance to your L, but it isn’t pretty and the resort itself is closed.
I would avoid this ride on a hot summer day, since much of it is exposed and there is no water.
River Road
The route is in the shape of a D, with Geysers being the rounded part and the straight part being Hwy 28/Geyserville Rd./Asti Rd. The latter is all gently rolling valley riding, so you could start anywhere along it. I like to ride a while before climbing, so I start in Asti, which gives 6 miles of warm-up before Geysers, though in fact you could start in Geyserville if you wanted to get all the flat stuff out of the way.
Early miles of Geyser Road
Start at the intersection of Asti Rd. and unpretentious Washington School Rd. (there’s a small turn-out for parking). Ride down Washington School for a half-mile to River Rd…if you can. Washington School crosses a gully on a dirt bridge that is impassible in inclement weather, so WSR is gated off much of the year. Give it a try—consider walking the 100 yards of the bridge if it’s unrideable—because River Rd. is just perfect, an idyllic roll along the edge of the vineyards, with grapes on your L and woodlands on your R, on the only glassy road surface you’ll see today. It’s like the over-ridden Silverado Trail without the traffic and with more contour. If WSR is off limits, ride north on Asti Rd., which is merely OK. It will take you to the same place.
Leaving the creek
River Rd. runs into Geysers Rd. Geysers is narrow and rough at first as it follows beside and climbs high above Big Sulfur Creek, but the character of the road varies—from patchy one-lane to gravel to smooth two-lane with bright centerline. You will “climb” for the next 13 miles, to the Geysers Resort turn-off, but a lot of it is mild up and down and absolutely none of it is hard—mostly 4-5%, never more than 7%. This is the best scenery of the ride, particularly in the fall when the leaves are turning, and the road is constantly rising, falling, turning, so it keeps your interest. There are several short stretches of gravel, all easy to navigate on 23mm tires. Notice the earthquake damage—very short stretches of road where the surface has dropped a foot or so.
Much of the upper climb is nicely wooded
At the Geyser Resort intersection, everything changes. The road becomes a polished, wide two-lane with centerline, and the pitches are steeper. From here on the scenery is about big, open canyon vistas, and there are several places where the road skirts the lip of the drop-off vertiginously.
Typical south-half view: looking back from the summit (Geysers Rd. in upper right)
Immediately after the Resort Rd intersection, you will do the ride’s only real work, 1.5 miles of truly hard 14-15%. Then it’s an easy mile or two to the first of the ride’s two summits. Don’t expect to see the Hwy 101 valley when the view to the west opens up—there are canyons and ridges between you and it. Check out the perfect view of the next climb, a serpentining stretch laid out perfectly before you on the opposite hill. It looks like an utter bitch but isn’t bad.
Looking at the second climb, from the first summit
A steep 2-mile descent reminds you that no descending in Sonoma County is really much fun—too rough, and the possibility of potholes, frost heaves, or even gravel stretches is always there. Cross the bridge and do the last climb, 1.5 miles that at first threatens to be ugly but soon turns moderate. Then substantial descending, which would be great if they’d just pave the damned thing, until you re-enter the valley.
Hwy 128: nice if the traffic is light
Take Hwy 128, which is very pretty but a bit too trafficky, to Geyserville, then Geyserville Rd, which becomes Asti Rd., back to your car. This last stretch is on the very shoulder of Hwy 101 and thus is only OK riding, and it rolls more than your tired legs would like, so be prepared (or start your ride in Geyserville).
Shortening the route: I wouldn’t. You could ride to the first summit and turn around, but you wouldn’t save yourself much in the way of miles or work, and you’d miss some very good stuff.
