Distance: 15-mile out and back
Elevation gain: 2630 ft
This is another of those pure climbs out of the Wine Country valley floor. Bestrides has four of them: Pine Flat Road, Geysers Road, Ida Clayton Road, and this one. They are all peachy, they all climb through similar, moderately pretty scrub much of the time, and they’re all fairly long, hard climbs without being brutal (7-10%). Obviously I like them all. How to know which one to ride first? Here are some distinguishing features:
Geysers is the only loop among the four (though Cavedale and Ida Clayton can be made into one). Geysers and the loop version of Cavedale are the only two to include sweet flat valley riding. Geysers has a more varied contour than the others. Much of its road surface is rough, but readers tell me it’s been partially improved recently. It’s by far the longest, so it has by far the shallowest (easiest) climbing.
Pine Flat has the steepest pitches and has a nice flat break in the middle of the climb (the eponymous Pine Flat). It can’t be looped.
Cavedale and Ida Clayton have both been repaved recently and have glassy surfaces.
Cavedale goes up to a summit and down the back side, so you get a super-sweet roller coaster between the summit and the turn-around that is one of my favorite legs in the Wine Country. Cavedale is the narrowest road of the four, which makes the descent sketchy.
Ida Clayton climbs steadily for 4 mi., then rolls and climbs mildly for another 4 mi. through beautiful woods on a road surface that ranges from OK to terrible.
Which one is the hardest? Here’s a quick look at the stats (very approximate) on the climbing segments only for the four rides:
Geysers: 22 miles, c. 180 ft/mile
Pine Flat Road: 10.6 miles, c. 340 ft/mile
Cavedale: 5.1 miles, c. 530 ft/mile
Ida Clayton: 4 mi, c. 620 ft/mile
As you can see, the shorter the ride the steeper the gradient. And sometimes averages lie—Pine Flat Rd. has some genuinely frightful pitches the others lack.
All four rides share the virtue of isolation: there’s really little reason for a car to be on any of them. Of the four, Cavedale is the busiest—despite its extremely car-unfriendly profile (narrow, winding), on my last visit it had a surprising number of vehicles on it.
Cavedale Rd. has one great virtue and one great drawback. The virtue is its perfect road surface—along with Ida Clayton, it’s as ideal a riding surface as you’ll find, and a great rarity in Sonoma County. The drawback is its narrowness. It’s so narrow that meeting a vehicle often means dismounting and getting off the road, and for that reason the descent is sketchy and cyclists often choose to do the road as part of a loop, descending Trinity Rd. instead (see below for details). I’ve had three conversations with local non-riders in which I mentioned that I was going to ride Cavedale, and every one of them volunteered, “Be careful—that’s a dangerous road.” I’m not kidding.
Cavedale climbs up from a spot along Hwy 12, over a summit, then up and down to its dead end at the summit of Trinity Rd. In character the climb is almost indistinguishable from Ida Clayton Rd’s.: steady 7-10% gain through Wine Country scrub with big vistas of the valley below as you ascend. Both rides go up to summits followed by mellow riding through pretty woods. If I was blindfolded and dropped on either climb I’m not sure I could tell which road I was on. Cavedale is slightly longer, slightly steeper, and significantly narrower.
Cavedale starts climbing at a brisk pace immediately, and at the southern end of Cavedale there is no shoulder parking, so for these two reasons I suggest you drive north on Hwy 12 a half mile to wide, open, flat Madrone Rd. and park/warm up there. Ride back to Cavedale, thanking god you don’t have to be on busy and dangerous Hwy 12 any longer than this.
At the base of Cavedale there are two promising signs: “Winding one-lane road, RV’s and trailers not recommended” (always encouraging for cyclists), and a sign telling you that the recent repaving is partly paid for out of profits from Levi’s Grand Fondo, the enormous group ride out of Santa Rosa—thank you, Mr. Leipheimer! (Hey, some of that money is mine!)
Climb for 5.1 miles to an obvious summit. There is little to distract you—there are no forks or crossroads and no visible houses by the road until you near the top. Many people live in the area and use the road (hence the traffic), but they’re all down long driveways and nothing is visible from the road except for the occasional gate. There is some fire damage, but the terrain is so barren you will hardly notice. Views of the valley below improve as you ascend.
Past the summit the road character changes into something wonderful. You leave the burn area, so the scenery gets lusher and prettier, and the road roller-coasters and serpentines deliciously to the turn-around. There’s only 2.2 miles of this, and you’ll wish there was more.
At the turn-around you have a big decision: descent Cavedale or descend Trinity? Here’s the Trinity loop route (thanks, MacKenzie):
For me it’s a hard decision to make. Neither descent is a favorite of mine. Trinity is shorter (3.1 mi.), hence much steeper—too steep to be real fun for me (steepest in the first mile or so, 10-12%)—and it’s absurdly curvy, with some nasty switchbacks. Trinity is much more heavily trafficked (it’s a major connector between the valleys), but MacKenzie in the comment below argues that you can outrun the car traffic. I didn’t find that to be true, but you may descend more aggressively than I do. Trinity’s primary appeal is, it’s wider—it’s a small two-lane road with centerline and minimal shoulder—and therefore safer, at least theoretically.
One appeal of the Trinity route is that it gives you a flat connecting leg between the base of Trinity and Cavedale that’s charming valley riding. It takes you through the heart of Glen Ellen, one of those quiet Wine Country towns the wine tourists tend to miss (stop at the unmistakable Les Pascals patisserie for a treat), then past the Sonoma Development Center (the gigantic complex that looks like an abandoned military base) with its fascinating history. Our backyard route avoids all of the horrors of Hwy 12 (very busy, narrow, no shoulder) save for the .5 mi. from Madrone to Cavedale.
If you do the Trinity loop route, make sure when you reach the intersection of Trinity and Hwy 12 you turn around to read the sign at the base of Trinity: “This road will not accommodate buses, RV’s, or stretch limos—you will get stuck!”
The Cavedale descent is too narrow and too steep to bomb, and traffic is a problem, but the sight lines are good and I enjoyed it when I relaxed and didn’t press.
Shortening the route: Ride to the summit and back (but you’ll miss my favorite miles). For a much easier ride, ride from the northwest end to the summit and back (4.4 miles RT).
See the Mt. Veeder Road Adding Miles section for options at the northwest end of Cavedale.
Adding miles: As discussed in the Mt. Veeder Road ride, Mt. Veeder and Cavedale are sorta parallel, so you can loop them both by riding one, then Trinity Grade to the other, then a rather lengthy connector through the greater Sonoma area. Locals do it, but I wouldn’t because it involves a large dose of the horrible Hwy 12.
If you do the Trinity loop route, when you’re in Glen Ellen you’re on the route of our Sonoma Mountain Road loop. Also good riding in the area are Lawndale Rd. and Henno Rd. (thanks, Brian).
As a Uber driver, I drove Cavedale Road on August 30, 2024, from Trinity Rd.to the highway. Beautiful but exceedingly dangerous one-lane road. Never going back.
From the north end of Cavedale, the descent down Trinity Rd. to Hwy 12 is the most popular route for locals. It is still technical but way more fun and safer (wider, better sightlines) than descending Cavedale. There is traffic but it can’t descend as fast as you.