California State Route 39, a ghost road with spectacular views

@ElentirENG ES 1·15·2024 · 23:30 0

In 1934, one of the most picturesque highways in that state was built in California, due to the beautiful landscapes of its mountainous areas.

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This highway, known as California State Route 39 (SR39), crossed Los Angeles and Orange counties, reaching south to the Pacific Coast Highway (SR1) and linking at its northern end with Angeles Crest Highway (SR2), which crosses the beautiful San Gabriel Mountains. SR39 runs through very beautiful landscapes, but ends abruptly a few hundred meters north of the Crystal Lake recreational area, in the aforementioned mountain range.

In 1978, landslides and rocks blocked the road. Due to the high cost of repair, that section of SR39 was closed to traffic. It has been like this for 45 years, accumulating more rockfalls and showing the signs of decades of abandonment. SR39 is not a very busy road, but that stretch north of Crystal Lake is a ghost road on which no cars circulate, since its entrances are closed with barriers.

Last year, Sidetrack Adventures published a video walking through part of of that ghost road:

You can see some screenshots from the video here. Here we can see the closed road, where the poor condition of the road can be seen after 45 years of abandonment.

This closed section crosses areas where a multitude of stones and fallen rocks are seen.

Some of the rocks that have obstructed the road are of considerable size, but what led to its closure was surely the landslide, which ended up affecting the layout of the road itself, as seen in the video.

What remains on this road are its beautiful views of the Sierra de San Gabriel.