Four riders strung out along a two-lane mountain road switching back through dry pine hillsides

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.

The road itself

The character changes as you climb. Fast open sweepers low down where the road is still wide, tighter and more technical as you gain altitude, and long sightlines most of the way that tempt people into carrying more speed than the next corner wants.

A large part of it is shut, and has been for years. The eastern section closed after the 2023 storms and the storms at the start of 2026 did further damage on top. Caltrans now has roughly thirty miles closed, from about 3.3 miles east of Newcomb’s Ranch through to Big Pines Highway, with washouts, rockfall, landslides and debris flows at around forty locations. As of August 2026 it says there is no anticipated timeline for reopening. Check the Caltrans project page or Caltrans QuickMap before you plan around it.

The western section, La Cañada up to Newcomb’s, is the part our Bike Shed days use, and it is the better riding anyway. Treat the through-route to Wrightwood as unavailable until Caltrans says otherwise.

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.
  • Do not plan a through-route to Wrightwood. The eastern thirty miles are closed indefinitely, so ACH is currently an out-and-back, not a loop.
  • Sightlines flatter your speed. The open sweepers up high are where riders get caught out, by gravel on the exit, by a car over the centre line, or by CHP.
  • Rockfall is normal, not exceptional. After any rain expect debris in the road, particularly on the shaded north-facing bends.

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.

RouteLengthHoursMap
ACH Loop (closed 2023)Half dayRoute
ACHHalf dayRoute
AFHHalf dayRoute

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.