Most of this review is for the part after the Crystal Lake turnoff…read more
Now for the rest of the road: You don't need to drive far to get into the mountains from I-210. It's a slog to get through Azusa. But once you're through, the two one-way streets come together again, and soon you're cruising through a much newer (and better) neighborhood, and before you know it, you're in the San Gabriels.
San Gabriel Canyon Road, aka Highway 39 (hereinafter referred to as 39), is a fun road, well maintained. Mostly windy, but it's a pretty wide 2-laner, so it's not so bad. There are not a lot of destinations on 39, so you go for the sport of driving.
What's on 39? A few trailheads, a campground, the road to the Bridge To Nowhere, Crystal Lake. The portion between Coldbrook and Crystal is gnarly steep.
Now for the important part.
In the 1970s, a rockslide closed the portion between the Crystal Lake turnoff and the Angeles Crest Highway. It hasn't reopened since. If I remember right, 39 was built in the 1930s, so this portion has been closed for a longer time than it's been open! The mountains are crumbly, so it would take millions of engineering and construction dollars to fix this thing, and Gov. Moonbeam would rather build a high-speed railroad that no one will ride instead of fixing 39. As a result, I think this portion will remain the way it is. As a side note, I'm thinking that this road is where the end of Disney's "The Love Bug" was filmed; the El Dorado Race, supposedly in the Sierras, looks suspiciously like 39 (or maybe it was Highway 2?).
This portion of 39 is four miles long. What do you get? No cars, obviously. But also, few people. You feel like you're in a wilderness, like you have all the mountains to yourself. No noise pollution nor smog. The views are spectacular.
I made it 1-1/2 miles up. I haven't ridden a bike in a long time, and my legs are out of shape. It's very possible to ride all the way up to the Angeles Crest Highway, I just didn't have the legs to do it. But what I experienced was good enough, very much worth the trip. Lots of photos. This being Southern Cal, I started at 8am before the heat kicked in.
Soooo, if your girlfriend/wife wants to get into the great outdoors, but goes "ew" at the thought of going camping or onto a trail where she'll get dirty and grimy and face those nasty bugs and get her hair looking all like barf-out-gag-me-with-a-spoon, then she can get into her fancy workout clothes, pack a lunch, you both drive to the end of 39, and start walking. She'll love it, you'll love it, and you two can make out in public without anyone seeing you ;-) And it's free.
