Riding Angeles Crest Highway with DROC

Angeles Crest Highway, State Route 2, climbs out of La Cañada Flintridge into the San Gabriel Mountains and runs about 66 miles of near-continuous curves. It is the best motorcycling road within reach of Orange County, and the reason is elevation: you leave the basin and its traffic behind.

DROC has run it 12 times, most often as the morning half of a day that ends at Italian Bike Day at Bike Shed LA. It is a long day out, not a quick blast.

How DROC rides it

  • ACH days start early. The climb is best before the canyon fills up, and the return leg is long.
  • Weather is the variable that catches people out. The top of the highway is thousands of feet above the coast, it can be twenty degrees colder, and sections close for snow in winter. Layer up.
  • Fuel before the climb. There is no gas on the highway itself.

Every time we have ridden it

Plus 2 more in the full event archive.

Route plans

These are the actual route plans DROC has used, with the map for each. Ride leaders pick from these rather than inventing a route every time, which is why the same roads come up again: they work. Nothing stops you riding them on your own.

RouteLengthHoursLast riddenMap
ACH Loop (closed 2023)Half dayRoute closed since 2023Route
ACHHalf dayJuly 2025Route
AFHHalf dayJanuary 2024Route

Ride it with us

Every DROC ride runs the same way: a safety briefing before we roll, staggered formation, a lead and a sweep, and regroups at every junction that matters. The full ground rules and the hand-signal guide are on the rides page.

See upcoming rides

See what is coming up, or join DROC. Bike nights are free and open to non-members, so you can also just turn up to one first.