Plenty of nice little runs on Mulholland. West of 405 into Encino is fun. 405 to Coldwater Canyon. Back in my high school days we used to run between Coldwater and Laurel Canyon. This was early eighties and I was making a few bucks hustling kids in their daddy's 5.0 Mustangs and Valley boys in their VW Siroccos. It had a bunch of turnouts and view points and on Friday and Saturday nights it would be packed with cars both watching and racing (amongst other things). Eventually it got so bad that it made the local news and the cops would be there ready to swoop in.
After an inevitable off and a pretty scary roll down the hill I called it quits on that particular activity. I drove it years later. All the look out points were gone and the place was overrun by million dollar mansions with driveways everywhere. Still a fun drive, just not as good as I remember. But what ever is?
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quikmini -
This route is OK, but it misses many of the best twisties for MINI's. Generally, the north-south roads are better than the east-west roads. SCMM (Southern California MINI Maniacs) has run MOAT (Mutha of All Twisties) for 6 years now in May or June. 119 miles of twisties in the Santa Monica Mountains-Malibu area. This years run - Login | ClubSCMM.com - SoCal MINI Maniacs - The premier MINI Cooper owners club serving all New MINI and Classic MINI owners in the Southern California area. I am not going to publish our route, come join us for the next MOAT on Mothers Day, Sunday May 13th, 2012.
As an aside, the twisties in the Santa Monica Mountains - Malibu area, as good as some of them are, are not my favorites. Too many bicyclists on the weekends, too many Ricky Racer wannabes on crotch rockets, too many locals backing out of their driveways on a weekend morning, and too many LEOS - sometimes with helicopters!! :frown2:
Bakersfield - Central California - the Sierra passes - Northern Cali - all better. Just too many people in SoCal. -
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I took some of my own advice and made a little detour on my way back north after a business trip to the Los Angeles airport area. Instead of taking the 405 to the 101 and back north, I took the Pacific Coast Highway (aka PCH or Hwy 1) north to Oxnard and then the 101 north. Since I was travelling up the PCH I had to make another detour into the Santa Monica mountains and the great canyon roads. This time I took Los Flores over to Mulholland Hwy and back down to PCH. Here is a map of the route.
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The canyon route was a 17 mile detour off of the PCH. Actually the PCH and canyon road detour was the same mileage as taking the freeways all the way home. Yes it took a little longer but was much more fun and scenic. I took this trip on a Friday afternoon and only caught one car going my same direction and they pulled into a ranch within 0.1 miles. I saw no law enforcement.
Point A. From PCH turned right (north) and headed up Los Flores Rd. Los Flores turns into Rambla Pacifico. Nice uphill road but many houses so need to pay attention to driveways.
Point B. Turned left (west) onto Piuma Rd. Excellent canyon road. Newly paved with a grooved center strip to help keep people on their own side of the road. Great turns, some even banked.
Point C. Turned right (north) onto Malibu Canyon Rd (aka Las Virgenes Rd). You can follow Las Virgenes north to Hwy 101 if you want to get back to a freeway.
Point D. Turned left (west) onto Mulholland Hwy. This is near Malibu Creek State Park and Paramont Ranch where shows such as MASH were filmed. Continued down Mulholland across the section called the Snake (see other CA Roads post) and past the Rock Store.
Point E. Headed across Kanan Rd to continue on Mulholland Hwy.
Point F. Stayed right at the Y to stay on Mulholland Hwy. At this point you can instead go left down Encinal Canyon Rd to PCH.
Point G. Turned left (south-west) at the Westlake Blvd/SR23 junction to stay on Mulholland Hwy. You could turn right (north) to head up to Hwy 101 if you have had enough canyons but why would you want to do that.
Point H. Turned right (west) to stay on Mulholland Hwy. At this point you can instead turn left (south) and head down Decker Rd to PCH. Decker is a fun steep downhill road. Very fun to drive uphill from PCH.
Point I. Continued straight to stay on Mulholland Hwy. At this point you can turn right (north) onto Little Sycamore Canyon which turns into Yerba Buena Rd. Yerba Buena is a great route if you want a few more miles of canyons. With no obstructions to my speed, I had about had enough of canyon roads so I headed down Mulholland Hwy to PCH. I know what a wimp but I am getting too old for all the g-forces.
Point J. Back at PCH. Turned right (west) to head towards Oxnard to connect back up to Hwy 101 for the rest of my trip home.
