State highways in California
The state highway system of the U. S. state of California is a network of highways that are owned and maintained by the Highway Division of the California Department of Transportation. Each highway is assigned a Route number in the Streets and Highways Code. Most of these are numbered in a statewide system, are known as State Route X. United States Numbered Highways are labeled US X, Interstate Highways are Interstate X. Under the code, the state assigns a unique Route X to each highway, does not differentiate between state, US, or Interstate highways; the California Highway Patrol is tasked with patrolling all state highways to enforce traffic laws. California's highway system is governed pursuant to Division 1 of the California Streets and Highways Code. Since July 1 of 1964, the majority of legislative route numbers, those defined in the Streets and Highways Code, match the sign route numbers. For example, Interstate 5 is listed as "Route 5" in the code. On the other hand, some short routes are instead signed as parts of other routes — for instance, Route 112 and Route 260 are signed as part of the longer State Route 61, Route 51 is part of Interstate 80 Business.
Concurrences are not explicitly codified in the Streets and Highways Code. The state may turn them over to local control. If the relinquished segment is in the middle of the highway's route, the local jurisdiction is required to install and maintain signs directing drivers to the continuation of that highway; the state may delete a highway and turn over an entire state route to local control. Business routes are not maintained by the state unless they are assigned legislative route numbers. A few routes or sections of routes are considered unrelinquished - a new alignment has been built, or the legislative definition has changed to omit the section, but the state still maintains the roadway — and are Route XU. There are two such unrelinqushed routes, with State Route 14U, an old alignment of State Route 14, as the most recent example of such, where the process to relinquish 14U started on January 1 of 2018, along with State Route 103U being the other unrelinquished route within the system; some new alignments are considered supplemental and have a suffix of S.
Both types of suffixed routes are considered spurs. Current or former unsigned suffixed routes include State Route 156U, signed as State Route 156 Business through Hollister, State Route 180S, the freeway replacement for State Route 180 in Fresno; the first legislative routes were defined by the State Highway Bond Act in 1909, passed by the California State Legislature and signed by Governor James Gillett. These, extensions to the system, were numbered sequentially. No signs were erected for these routes; the United States Numbered Highways were assigned by the American Association of State Highway Officials in November 1926, but posting did not begin in California until January 1928. These were assigned to some of the main legislative routes in California. Signs were posted by the Automobile Club of Southern California and California State Automobile Association, active in signing national auto trails and local roads since the mid-1900s. In 1934, after the major expansion of the state highway system in 1933 by the California Legislature, California sign route numbers were assigned by the California Division of Highways.
The California sign route numbers were assigned in a geographical system independent of the legislative routes. Odd-numbered routes ran north–south and even-numbered routes ran east–west; the routes were split among southern California and central and northern California as follows: 0 or 1 modulo 4: central and northern California 2 or 3 modulo 4: southern CaliforniaFor instance, State Route 1 and State Route 4 were in central and northern California, State Route 2 and State Route 3 were in southern California. A rough grid was used inside the two regions, with the largest numbers — all less than 200 - in eastern California and near the border between the two regions; the Interstate Highway System numbers were assigned by AASHO in late 1959. In 1963 and 1964, a total renumbering of the legislative routes was made, aligning them with the sign routes; some changes were made to the sign routes related to decommissionings of U. S. Routes in favor of Interstates. Since the 1990s, many non-freeway routes in urban areas, have been deleted and turned over to local control.
This transfers the cost of maintaining them from state to local budgets, but gives local governments direct control over urban arterial roads th
Soledad Pass
Soledad Pass, elevation 3,209 ft, is a mountain pass in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is located at the highest point along Soledad Canyon, which winds between the Sierra Pelona Mountains to the northwest and the San Gabriel Mountains to the southeast; the pass provides a direct route between the Santa Clara River watershed and the Antelope Valley of the western Mojave Desert. The pass is notable as the highest saddle between two major mountain ranges, the San Bernardino Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. Soledad Pass is the lowest crossing of the Great Basin Divide between the Sierra Nevada and the San Bernardino Mountains, so it is traversed by one railroad line and three highways; the railroad route is a former main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, now part of Union Pacific Railroad. The importance of the railroad line for freight traffic diminished with the completion of the Palmdale Cutoff over Cajon Pass in the 1960s; the route is now used for the Antelope Valley Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system, most Union Pacific intermodal trains and the Saugus local as well as the Vulcan rock train.
The Vincent Grade/Acton station lies near the summit of Soledad Pass. A proposed alignment of the California High Speed Rail system utilizes this mountain pass; the Antelope Valley Freeway, the Sierra Highway, the Angeles Forest Highway all use Soledad Pass. Landforms of Los Angeles County, California Soledad Canyon Escondido Summit List of mountain passes in California
Rosamond, California
Rosamond is a census-designated place in Kern County, California, USA, near the Los Angeles county line. 20 miles north of Palmdale, in the Antelope Valley, the westernmost desert valley of the Mojave Desert. Rosamond is 13 miles south of Mojave, 11 miles north of Lancaster at an elevation of 2,342 feet. According to 2010 United States census data, the town population was 18,150; the Postal Service shows portions of Rosamond as having the names Tropico Village, named after a mine, Willow Springs. Rosamond Skypark Airport, Federal Aviation Administration identifier L00, is located at 34°52′15″N 118°12′32″W and features a paved 3,600-foot runway. Wired telephone numbers in Rosamond follow the format 256-xxxx and the entire city is included in ZIP Code 93560. Rosamond contains the Rosamond urban area, according to the 2010 Census; the Rosamond urban area had a population of 16,000, with a land area of 6.33 square miles and a population density of 2,528 per square mile in 2010. Rosamond was established in 1877 as a townsite owned by the Southern Pacific Railroad.
The first local industries were mining and cattle. During the 1890s, gold was discovered in the area drawing miners and prospectors. After the initial boom, gold mining declined, though it had a second, smaller boom during the 1930s. In 1933, Muroc Army Air Field was established some 20 miles away; the Rosamond post office opened in 1885, closed in 1887, re-opened in 1888. Rosamond sits in the northern end of the Antelope Valley, the westernmost valley of the Mojave Desert; because the elevation is 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, the area, like the other parts of the Mojave Desert region, is referred to as the High Desert. Some cities and communities within the trading area of Rosamond include Lancaster, Palmdale, Hi Vista, Redman, Lake Los Angeles, Quartz Hill and Santa Clarita. Residents of these desert cities and unincorporated communities share Sierra Highway, Angeles Forest Highway, Angeles Crest Highway, the Antelope Valley Freeway for commutes to the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles Basin in order to get to work.
Willow Springs lies west of central Rosamond and was a watering hole for stagecoach travelers for generations, though its springs have dried up. Willow Springs Raceway is nearby, which hosts a variety of motor racing events, attracting people from all over Southern California and beyond. Rosamond is located at 34°51′51″N 118°09′48″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 52.336 square miles, of which, 52.121 square miles of it is land and 0.215 square miles of it is water. The 2010 United States Census reported that Rosamond had a population of 18,150; the population density was 346.8 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Rosamond was 11,294 White, 1,476 African American, 221 Native American, 658 Asian, 66 Pacific Islander, 3,258 from other races, 1,177 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6,230 persons The Census reported that 18,145 people lived in households, 5 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, 0 were institutionalized.
There were 6,197 households, out of which 2,603 had children under the age of 18 living in them, 3,254 were opposite-sex married couples living together, 843 had a female householder with no husband present, 390 had a male householder with no wife present. There were 432 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, 40 same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,317 households were made up of individuals and 342 had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.93. There were 4,487 families; the population was spread out with 5,290 people under the age of 18, 1,956 people aged 18 to 24, 4,708 people aged 25 to 44, 4,716 people aged 45 to 64, 1,480 people who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32.0 years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.2 males. There were 6,968 housing units at an average density of 133.1 per square mile, of which 4,202 were owner-occupied, 1,995 were occupied by renters.
The homeowner vacancy rate was 4.5%. 12,388 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 5,757 people lived in rental housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 14,349 people, 4,988 households, 3,626 families residing in the CDP; the population density was 274.7 people per square mile. There were 5,597 housing units at an average density of 107.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 72.01% White, 6.62% Black or African American, 1.32% Native American, 3.01% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 11.65% from other races, 5.16% from two or more races. There were 4,988 households out of which 41.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.7% were married couples living together, 12.5% had a female householder with no husband present, 27.3% were non-families. 21.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.2% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.88 and the average family size was 3.38. In
History of California's state highway system
The state highway system in the U. S. state of California dates back to 1896, when the state took over maintenance of the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road. Construction of a large connected system began in 1912, after the state's voters approved an $18 million bond issue for over 3000 miles of highways; the last large addition was made by the California State Assembly in 1959, after which only minor changes have been made. The first state road was authorized on March 26, 1895, when a law created the post of "Lake Tahoe Wagon Road Commissioner" to maintain the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road, now US 50 from Smith Flat - 3 miles east of Placerville - to the Nevada state line; the 58 mile road had been operated as a toll road until 1886. Funding was only enough for minimal improvements, including a stone bridge over the South Fork American River in 1901. In 1895, on March 27, the legislature created the three-person Bureau of Highways to coordinate efforts by the counties to build good roads; the bureau traveled to every county of the state in 1895 and 1896 and prepared a map of a recommended system of state roads, which they submitted to the governor on November 25, 1896.
The legislature replaced the Bureau of Highways with the Department of Highways on April 1, 1897, three days after it passed a law creating a second state highway from Sacramento to Folsom - another part of what became US 50 - to be maintained by three "Folsom Highway Commissioners". This was the last highway maintained by a separate authority, as the next state road, the Mono Lake Basin State Road, was designated by the legislature in 1899 to be built and maintained by the Department of Highways. Several more state highways were legislated in the next decade, the legislature passed a law creating the Department of Engineering on March 11, 1907; this new department, in addition to non-highway duties, was to maintain all state highways, including the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road. On March 22, 1909 the "State Highways Act" was passed, taking effect on December 31, 1910 after a successful vote by the people of the state in November; this law authorized the Department of Engineering to issue $18 million in bonds for a "continuous and connected state highway system" that would connect all county seats.
To this end, the department created the three-member California Highway Commission on August 8, 1911 to take full charge of the construction and maintenance of this system. As with the 1896 plan by the Bureau of Highways, the Highway Commission traveled the state to determine the best routes, which ended up stretching about 3100 miles. Construction began in mid-1912, with groundbreaking on Contract One - now part of SR 82 in San Mateo County - on August 7. Noteworthy portions of the system built by the commission included the Ridge Route in southern California and the Yolo Causeway west from Sacramento; because the first bond issue did not provide enough funding, the "State Highways Act of 1915" was approved by the legislature on May 20, 1915 and the voters in November 1916, taking effect on December 31. This gave the Department of Engineering an additional $12 million to complete the original system and $3 million for a further 680 miles specified by the law. At this time, each route was assigned a number from 1 to 34.
In 1917, the legislature gave the California Highway Commission statutory recognition, turned over the 750 miles of roads adopted by legislative act, until maintained by the State Engineer, to the commission. Where not serving as extensions of existing routes, these - and routes subsequently added legislatively in 1917 and 1919 - were given numbers from 35 to 45. A third bond issue was approved by the voters at a special election on July 1, 1919, provided $20 million more for the existing routes and the same amount for new extensions totaling about 1800 miles, adding Routes 46 to 64 to the system; the three bond issues together totaled 5560 miles, of which just over 40% was completed or under construction in mid-1920. The Department of Engineering became part of the new Department of Public Works in 1921, the California Highway Commission was separated as its own department in 1923. In order to pay for the roads, a 2-cent per gallon gasoline tax was approved in 1923; the legislature continued to add highways to the system, including the Mother Lode Highway in 1921 and the Arrowhead Trail in 1925.
In January 1928, the California State Automobile Association and Automobile Club of Southern California, placing guide and warning signs along state highways, marked the U. S. Highways along several of the most major state highways; the California Toll Bridge Authority was created in 1929 to acquire and operate all toll bridges on state highways, including the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and Carquinez Bridge. After 1927 and 1929, in which no highways were added to the system, the legislature authorized the construction of 23 new routes in 1931, which were numbered from 72 to 80 when not forming extensions of existing routes. Two years another 213 sections of highway were added doubling the total length of state highways to about 14000 miles. Many of these new routes, as well as a number of existing routes, were incorporated into the initial system of state sign routes in 1934 posted by the auto clubs; the Division of Highways took over signage on stat
Mojave, California
Mojave is a census-designated place in Kern County, United States. Mojave is located 50 miles east at an elevation of 2,762 feet; the town is located in the southwestern region of the Mojave Desert and east of Oak Creek Pass and the Tehachapi Mountains. The population was 4,238 at the 2010 census, up from 3,836 at the 2000 census. Telephone numbers in Mojave follow the format 824-xxxx and the area includes three postal ZIP Codes; the town of Mojave began in 1876 as a construction camp on the Southern Pacific Railroad. From 1884 to 1889, the town was the western terminus of the 165-mile, twenty-mule team borax wagon route originating at Harmony Borax Works in Death Valley, it served as headquarters for construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. Located near Edwards Air Force Base, Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Palmdale Regional Airport, Mojave has a rich aerospace history as well. Besides being a general-use public airport, Mojave has three main areas of activity: flight testing, space industry development, aircraft heavy maintenance and storage.
The closest airfield to the city known as the Mojave Airport, is now part of the Mojave Air and Space Port. In 1935, Kern County established the Mojave Airport 0.5 miles east of town to serve the gold and silver mining industry in the area. The airport consisted of two dirt runways, one of, oiled, but it lacked any fueling or servicing facilities. In 1941, the Civil Aeronautics Board began improvements to the airport for national defense purposes that included two 4,500 by 150 foot asphalt runways and adjacent taxiway. Kern County agreed. Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the U. S. Marine Corps took over the airport and expanded it into Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station Mojave; the two existing runways were extended and a third one added. Barracks were constructed to house 2,734 376 female military personnel. Civilian employment at the base would peak at 176; the Marines would spend more than $7 million on the base, which totaled 2,312 acres. Many of the Corps' World War II aces received their gunnery training at Mojave.
During World War II, Mojave hosted 29 aircraft squadrons, four Carrier Aircraft Service Detachments, three Air Warning Squadrons. At its peak, the air station had other aircraft. Mojave had a 75 by 156 foot swimming pool, used to train aviators in emergency water egress and for recreation; the base's 900-seat auditorium hosted several USO shows that featured Bob Hope, Frances Langford and Marilyn Maxwell. With the end of WWII, MCAAS was dis-established on February 7, 1946. S. Navy Air Station was established the same day; the Navy used the airport for drone operations for less than a year, closing it on January 1, 1947. The base remained closed for four years until the outbreak of the Korean War. Mojave was reactivated as an auxiliary landing field to MCAS El Toro; the airport was recommissioned as a MCAAS on December 31, 1953. Squadrons used Mojave for ordnance training. Marine Corps reserve units were temporarily deployed to Mojave for two week periods. MCAAS Mojave personnel peaked at 200 civilians during this period.
In 1961, after the USMC transferred operations to MCAS El Centro, Kern County obtained title to the airport. In February 1972, the East Kern Airport District was formed to administer the airport. To a great extent EKAD was the brainchild of Dan Sabovich who lobbied the state for the airport district's creation and ran EKAD until 2002. During the 1970s, Mojave Airport was served by commuter air carrier Golden West Airlines with scheduled passenger flights operated with de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops direct to Los Angeles. On November 20, 2012, the EKAD Board of Directors voted to change the name of the district to the Mojave Air and Space Port. Officials said that the spaceport name is well known around the world; the change took effect on January 1, 2013. The airport is now the home of various aerospace companies and institutions such as Scaled Composites and the civilian National Test Pilot School; the town was home to the Rutan Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world nonstop and unrefueled.
The airport is the first inland spaceport in the United States, was the location of the first private spaceflight, the launch of SpaceShipOne on June 21, 2004. Mojave has a Mojave Transportation Museum. Mojave is located at 35°03′09″N 118°10′26″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 58.4 square miles, over 99% of it land. Mojave has a desert climate (Köppen: BWk, cold desert for using an isotherm of mean annual temperature of less than 18 °C or hot desert for using an isotherm of less than 0 °C for the mean temperature of the coldest month, it has cool winters. Average January temperatures are a maximum of 57.8 °F and a minimum of 34.3 °F. Average July temperatures are a maximum of 97.7 °F and a minimum of 69.8 °F. There are an average of 98 days with highs of 90 °F and an average of 45.7 days with lows of 32 °F. The record high temperature was 118 °F on August 5, 1914; the record low temperature was 8 °F on December 23, 1990. Average annual rainfall is 5.96 inches.
There are an average of 22 days with measurable precipitation. The wettest year was 1983 with 15.51 inches and the driest year was 1942 with 0.85 inches. The most rainfall in one month
Santa Clarita, California
Santa Clarita the City of Santa Clarita, is the third largest city in Los Angeles County and the 24th largest in the state of California. The city has annexed a number of unincorporated areas, contributing to the large population increase, it is located about 35 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, occupies most of the Santa Clarita Valley. It is a notable example of a U. S. edge boomburb. Santa Clarita was ranked by Money magazine in 2006 as 18th of the top 100 places to live. Santa Clarita was incorporated in December 1987 as the union of four unincorporated communities, Canyon Country, Newhall and Valencia, most of which are situated on the land of the former Rancho San Francisco; the four communities retain separate identities, it is common for residents to refer to a specific neighborhood when asked where they are from. Santa Clarita is bounded on the west by the Golden State Freeway; the Antelope Valley Freeway runs northeast-southwest through an irregular east border, the Newhall Pass is the city's southernmost point.
Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park and Stevenson Ranch are both associated with Santa Clarita, though since both are located west of Interstate 5, neither is within the Santa Clarita city limits. The Santa Clara River was named by Spanish explorers for Clare of Assisi; the valley and the settlement became known as "little Santa Clara" in deference to the Northern California mission and city of Santa Clara, California. In time, "little Santa Clara" became "Santa Clarita." Santa Clarita was incorporated in December 1987. About AD 450, the Tataviam arrived. In 1842, Francisco Lopez made the first "documented" discovery of gold in California; the event is memorialized in an 1842 mining claim issued by Gov. Juan B. Alvarado; the discovery was made in Placerita Canyon, an area used as Hollywood's original back lot. The community of Newhall is named after Henry Newhall, a businessman who made his fortune during the California Gold Rush after opening up the H. M. Newhall & Company, a successful auction house in San Francisco.
Newhall's next business interest was railroads. He invested in rail companies that would connect San Francisco to other cities and became president of the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad. In 1870, he and his partners sold the company to Southern Pacific Railroad, on whose board of directors he sat. After railroads, Newhall turned to real ranching, he purchased a number of the old Spanish and Mexican land grants in the state for a total of 143,000 acres between Monterey and Los Angeles counties. The most significant portion was the 46,460 acres Rancho San Francisco in northern Los Angeles County, which he purchased for $2/acre, which became known as Newhall Ranch after Newhall's death. Within this territory, he granted a right-of-way to Southern Pacific through what is now Newhall Pass, he sold them part of the land, upon which the company built a town named after him: Newhall; the first station built on the line he named for his hometown, Massachusetts. After his death, Newhall's heirs incorporated the Newhall Land and Farming Company, which oversaw the development of the communities that now make up Santa Clarita.
On September 26, 1876, Charles Alexander Mentry brought in the state's first productive oil well at Mentryville, giving rise to the California oil industry. The oil was brought to a refinery at Newhall, now the oldest existing petroleum refinery in the world. A few days earlier, on September 5, 1876, Charles Crocker and Leland Stanford joined their railroads in Canyon Country, linking Los Angeles with the rest of the nation for the first time; the Saugus Cafe, on Railroad Avenue in Saugus, was established in 1887 and appears to be, by far, the oldest still-operating restaurant in Los Angeles County. Filming in Santa Clarita began shortly after the turn of the 20th century with a veritable Who's Who of actors, including William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Harry Carey and a young John Wayne. Hart and Carey made their homes in the Santa Clarita Valley; the Santa Clarita Valley was the scene of the second worst disaster in California's history in terms of lives lost, known as the "worst civil engineering failure of the 20th century".
Shortly before midnight on March 12, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed. By the time the floodwaters reached the Pacific Ocean near Ventura five hours nearly 600 people were dead. Within modern Santa Clarita city limits, the present day site of the Westfield Valencia Town Center mall would have been buried beneath muck and debris; some buildings in Newhall became makeshift morgues. After multiple failed attempts to form a city and at least two failed attempts to form a separate county, the people of the Santa Clarita Valley incorporated the City of Santa Clarita at 4:30 PM on December 15, 1987 after voting in favor of incorporation by a margin of two to one in that year's general election; the other proposed name for the new city, narrowly defeated, was "City of the Canyons." Santa Clarita, according to the United States Census Bureau, has an area of 62.16 square miles, of which 62.10 square miles is land and 0.06 square miles is water. Santa Clarita is near the San Fernando fault zone and was affected by the 1971 San Fernando earthquake known as the Sylmar quake.
The city was affected by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, many commercial and residential buildings were devastated by its aftermath, including the nearby Newhall Pass, the Valencia Town Center, Six Flags Magic Mountain. Magi
San Gabriel Mountains
The San Gabriel Mountains are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, United States. The mountain range is part of the Transverse Ranges and lies between the Los Angeles Basin and the Mojave Desert, with Interstate 5 to the west and Interstate 15 to the east; this range lies in, is surrounded by, the Angeles National Forest, with the San Andreas Fault as the northern border of the range. The highest peak in the range is Mount San Antonio referred to as Mt. Baldy. Mount Wilson is another famous peak, famed for the Mount Wilson Observatory and the antenna farm that houses many of the transmitters for local media; the observatory may be visited by the public. On October 10, 2014, President Obama designated the area the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. To date, The Trust for Public Land has protected more than 3,800 acres of land in the San Gabriel Mountains, its foothills and the Angeles National Forest. Much of the range features rolling peaks.
The range lacks craggy features, but contains a large number of canyons and is very rugged and difficult to traverse. The San Gabriel Mountains are in effect a large fault block, uplifted and dissected by numerous rivers and washes; the highest elevation, Mount San Antonio at 10,064 feet, rises towards the eastern extremity of the range which extends from the Cajon Pass on the east, where the San Gabriel Mountain Range meets the San Bernardino Mountain Range, westward to meet the Santa Susanna range at Newhall Pass. North of San Fernando, the San Gabriel Mountains crest abruptly up to 4,000 feet. Pacoima and Big Tujunga Canyons cut through the range just east of San Fernando, carrying runoff into the San Fernando Valley. Little Tujunga Canyon Road bridges the range in this area, connecting the San Fernando Valley to the Santa Clara River valley in the north. Towering over Big Tujunga Canyon north of Big Tujunga Reservoir is Mount Gleason, which at 6,502 feet, is the highest in this region of the San Gabriels.
South of the gorge are the southern "foothills" of the mountains, which rise abruptly 4,000 feet above the Los Angeles Basin and give rise to the Arroyo Seco, a tributary of the Los Angeles River. Southeast of Big Tujunga Canyon, the southern front range of the San Gabriels grows in elevation, culminating in notable peaks such as Mount Wilson at 5,710 feet. On the north the range is abruptly dissected by the canyon of the West Fork San Gabriel River. Further north the range slopes up into the towering main crest of the San Gabriels, a sweeping arc-shaped massif 30 miles in length that includes most of the highest peaks in the range: Waterman Mountain, at 8,038 feet. On the north slopes of the San Gabriel crest, the northern ranks of mountains drop down incrementally to the floor of the Mojave Desert in a much more gradual manner than the sheer southern flank; the Angeles Crest Highway, one of the main routes across the San Gabriels, runs through this area from west to east. Little Rock, Big Rock and Sheep Creeks drain off the northern part of the mountains, forming large alluvial fans as they descend into the Mojave.
To the east, the San Andreas Fault cuts across the range, forming a series of long and narrow depressions, including Swarthout Valley and Lone Pine Canyon. South of Mount San Antonio, San Antonio Creek drains the mountains, cutting the deep San Antonio Canyon. East of San Antonio Canyon, the range loses elevation, the highest peaks in this section of the mountain range are in the south, rising above the Inland Empire cities of Claremont and Rancho Cucamonga. However, there are still several notable peaks in this region, including Telegraph Peak, at 8,985 feet, Cucamonga Peak, at 8,859 feet, Ontario Peak, rising 8,693 feet. Lytle Creek, flowing southeast, drains most of the extreme eastern San Gabriels; the range terminates at Cajon Pass, through which runs Interstate 15, beyond which rise the higher San Bernardino Mountains. The Range is bound on the north by the Antelope Valley and the Mojave Desert and to the south by the communities of greater Los Angeles area. In the western portion of the San Gabriel Mountain Range, the Sierra Pelona Ridge stretches from Soledad Canyon, formed by the Santa Clara River.
The Sierra Pelona Ridge includes Liebre Mountain, Sawmill Mountain, Grass Mountain, Redrock Peak, Burnt Peak, most of, part of the Angeles National Forest, but features several rural communities. Melting snow and rain runoff on the south side of the San Gabriels' highest mountains give rise to its largest river, the San Gabriel River. Just to the west of Mount Hawkins, a north-south divide separates water running down the two main forks of the river and their tributaries; the West Fork, beginning at Red Box Saddle, runs 14 miles eastward, the East Fork, starting north of Mount San Antonio, flows 18 miles south and west through a steep and precipitous gorge. The two meet at San Gabriel Reservoir, turn south, boring through the southern portion of the San Gabriels, emptying out of the mountains near Azusa into the urban San Gabriel Valley, to the Pacific Ocean near Seal Beach. San Gabriel Mountains peaks within the Angeles National Forest include: Mount San Antonio, 10,064 ft Pine Mountain, 9,648 ft Dawson Peak, 9,575 ft
US 50 / SR 89 in South Lake Tahoe[1]
SR 14U in 
I-5 north (Golden State Freeway) / SR 14 north (Antelope Valley Freeway) / Foothill Boulevard – Sacramento, Palmdale
SR 14 (Antelope Valley Freeway) / CR N3 (Angeles Forest Highway) to SR 2 (Angeles Crest Highway) – Palmdale, Los Angeles, Pasadena, La Cañada Flintridge
SR 138 (Palmdale Boulevard) – Victorville, San Bernardino, Los Angeles
CR N5 (Avenue J)
US 395 south – San Bernardino
