California

"youshiftem" (torinosport302)
11/30/2016 at 08:09 • Filed to: None

Heading to the Los Angeles area for work the week of December 12th and I’m looking for the best roads to drive in the area and any car-related things to do while I’m there. Anyone have any suggestions?

DISCUSSION (9)

With-a-G is back to not having anything written after his username > youshiftem
11/30/2016 at 08:29

“Los Angeles” is a big place and you can waste a lot of time getting from one side of it to the other. Where specifically will you be?

If you are on the northwest side, the canyon roads above Malibu are delightful.

youshiftem > With-a-G is back to not having anything written after his username
11/30/2016 at 08:58

Thanks I’ll definitely check that out. I have a lot of time to kill between meetings so I’ll probably be driving all over most of the time.

E92M3 > youshiftem
11/30/2016 at 09:45

After you sit in traffic for 3 hours to go 5 miles a couple times, I doubt you’ll want to get back in the car. My advice is to do Mulholland if you can. You should probably try to leave the city at 4am.

crowmolly > youshiftem
11/30/2016 at 09:47

I had a lot of fun driving Topanga Canyon.

PartyPooper2012 > youshiftem
11/30/2016 at 10:52

Play grand theft auto V. Then decide where you want to be/go/drive

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > youshiftem
11/30/2016 at 11:36

Could you be more specific about where you will be in Los Angeles? I have plenty of recommendations, but depending on where in the metro area you are, they could be an all-day trip to get to/from.

As a rule: Mountain highways. Transverse Ranges (immediately around Los Angeles), Peninsular Ranges (south), and possibly the Southern California Coast Ranges (north). Angeles Crest Highway (2, plus a bunch of highways that branch off it in the San Gabriel Mountains, like Tujunga Canyon, the highway that drops into Palmdale, etc), San Gabriel Canyon Road (39), Glendora Mountain Road (to Mt Baldy; can be made a small loop with Mt Baldy Road), Maricopa Highway (33), Rim of the World Highway (18; backtrack up to and make it a loop coming down 38), Pines to Palms Highway (74 between Hemet and Palm Desert), Banning-Idyllwild Highway (243), Ortega Highway (74 between San Juan Capistrano and Lake Elsinore), Palomar Mountain’s South Grade Rd & East Grade Road off 76 (go to Santa Ysabel or Julian to get apple pie from the Julian Pie Co if you do this), and 78 or 79 from Julian.

I could go on forever. There are a ton of sweet mountain roads around Los Angeles. I am not as familiar with the ones north of Castaic, but know there are a bunch from both sides of the 5 (ex: You can split off Maricopa Highway and take some mountain roads up through Frazier Park, then back down the 5).

Good luck and have fun.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > E92M3
11/30/2016 at 11:41

Although Mulholland is fun, getting there can be a real challenge and it’s too well known (so often has bad tourist traffic). Malibu Canyon and Topanga Canyon suffer the same problems. Then again, they are really close to downtown...

youshiftem > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
11/30/2016 at 11:55

This is awesome, I live for driving around new places so I’m willing to spend entire days getting somewhere. My hotel is near Pomona so I will definitely check out the San Gabriel mountain area.

I do love pie, maybe another day I’ll head south to the Palomar mountain area as well!

Thanks for the great answer!

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > youshiftem
11/30/2016 at 13:10

Oh yes, there’s also the Petersen Automotive Museum in the Miracle Mile district of Wilshire Boulevard (which is, itself something to see - it’s where the layout of the city that resulted in the strong car culture in Los Angeles was invented). LACMA and La Brea Tar Pits are both here as well. La Brea is interesting for many reasons - it’s a remnant of the vast oil fields that once existed in the Los Angeles basin (you’ll still see active and abandoned pumpjacks around the area, but nowhere near the production when there were oil derricks everywhere).

Some other fun things are all the spots in town that they film movies. You can drive over many of the bridges you’ve seen, see the concrete-lined rivers, etc. One of my favorite filming locations in the city is the Korean Friendship Bell on the south end of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.