This collection of roads makes a nice leg of a loop involving Angeles Forest, Mount Emma, and Angeles Crest. You can also take this out of the high desert to Angeles Crest and continue out to the San Bernardino Foothills. Fort Tejon Rd. itself is nothing very special, but when it ends at Valyermo Rd., which quickly turns into Big Pines Rd., things start to get interesting.

Fort Tejon runs east out of Palmdale, or from Mount Emma if using that route, towards the Mountain High ski resort and Wrightwood. The first section (Fort Tejon Rd.) is mostly straight through the high desert and scrublands. It drops down to river basin and a "T" intersection with Valyermo Rd. (Headed east on Fort Tejon Rd, turn left where it ends at Pallett Creek Rd. and then right on Valyermo Rd.) Very quickly you start to wind your way up the side of the mountain, including some very tight hairpin switchbacks.

Overall the pavement is in fairly good condition and depending on the time of year there is not a lot of other traffic up here. Obviously conditions will be less than ideal in the winter, in the higher elevations the road surface doesn't get much direct sunlight during the day so snow and ice are a real concern in colder weather.

The last few miles at the upper end are posted 30mph (from N4 - Largo Vista Rd. ((cyan)) east to the top), mainly due to a high concentration of campgrounds and picnic areas, but the curves are still one after the other and can still be a lot of fun if you are willing to push just a "bit" harder than the posted limit. Mile High Café is located at the intersection of Largo Vista and Big Pines and, in fair weather at least, seems popular with the motorcycles out to play.

The very best part of this road is the section between Bobs Gap Rd. (green) and Largo Vista Rd. (cyan); however this is just my personal opinion. A friend of mine was following me on his motorcycle up this road and was less than enthused by the difficulty level of the hairpins climbing up the hill in this section.

Downhill would have been more difficult, but even taken uphill with gravity to help slow you down some of these corners are incredibly tight. I've marked the worst of the hairpins on the map at right and included an aerial photograph of those particular curves, but there are an endless succession of them here. For someone prepared for them and confident in their driving or riding abilities this can be an amazing stretch of pavement to play on. Just keep the new players at home.

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