Exploring California's Highway 39 - Closed For Over 40 Years

I'm from the UK and due to my health I spend a lot of time having to lie down in a darkened room. Your videos allow me to go on adventures to places I'll never get to visit. Many thanks

Hey Steve, just for your info I work for the company that rebuilt all of the rockslide damage to the road back in the mid-2000s after 9/11 Homeland security mandated that the road must be open for emergency egress from the LA county in case of an emergency situation a company I work for at the time we spent nearly a year installing poured-in-place pile to shore up the slides that have closed the roads many years prior

Hello I'm from this area and have driven on this closed off road. I was camping in Crystal lake when a fire broke out somewhere near the HOV area before East Fork so no one could get back down highway 39. We were being smoked out so they had no choice but to open the closed road for the first time in like 50 years I think they said. We went like 3 cars at a time slowly. It was amazing it was so up high the view was beautiful and there were boulders the size of ambulances you had to swerve around on the road and a huge section of the road was missing.. one lane had fallen in a rock slide so it was nerve racking driving on the side that was still holding up. We made it through and it connected to Los Angeles Crest Highway 2, near snow crest. Definitely glad I got to experience that. Oh and I'll never forget a young woman who drove up to my car to ask what was going on in a panic. She said she was from Virginia on vacation.. I told her casually to follow the road that they were going to open. She was the first one to go on the road. 😅

I rode my motorcycle through a snowstorm on that road in 1977. Epic. Great video

I grew up in Arcadia during the 50s and 60s. My Dad would take us up to Crystal lake on several lazy Saturdays. This section of Hwy 39 allowed us to make the loop up from Azusa and down The Angeles Crest Highway (Hwy 2) through Altadena and home to Arcadia. When I started driving I drove this stretch of 39 many times. Thanks for the memories!

In a suprise to absolutely no one besides those unaware of just how much wear and tear traffic generates, roads do hold up for 50 years or more if you don't have heavy vehicles barreling down them a million times a year. Highway 39 definitely does look like it would quickly become one of my favorite bicycle climbs if I lived in the area.

As an Australian who has only visited the USA once, I have to say that watching that drive up to Crystal Lake makes me want to start planning another trip.

My brother when he was 15 in the early 60s invented cookie soup at Crystal lake. Thats a story for another time. Great to see a highway i traveled many times. The ranger station above the upper lake was where i was taken when i had had been hit in the head by boulder as i was climbing down the rocky bank about a mile above the station. I had been deer hunting and took a short cut back down to the highway when the rock fell on me. Thank Jesus i survived as i received 16 stitches from it. Any way awesome to see the area again after 60+ years.

I grew up in Northern California and videos like this make me so homesick for the time I spent with my parents back in the 80’s when life was so much easier. Those who didn’t have a childhood in California just don’t understand the love appeal it had.

I lived in Glendora for 28 years and worked for Verizon, so spent a lot of time up Hwy 39 providing service to the new tracts they built right before getting into the mountainous areas, also service to the residents at the dam and the Crystal lake campground, especially after fires. I loved going up there, you’re instantly out of the city with beautiful views! Thanks for the memories!

A fascinating case-study on how modern roadwork lasts without maintenance, at least for a mostly dry Mediterranean style climate

I'm one of the few lucky people to have been able to drive on this road myself. I'm 24, and at the time of January 1st, 2019, the gates on both ends had been opened, and that same boulder that he walked by has been there all these years! So many cars were driving up and down this road enjoying the beautiful scenery of the New Years Day, and there was even snow on the road too, making it more memorable! Sadly, it was closed again the day after as some workers who had been using the road to get over to Highway 2 had left the gates open for the long weekend, but it was an experience like no other!

About 15 years ago I went to the lookout at the end of the road (4:52) and saw a California condor. Just below the parking area there were some telephone poles installed on the slope in such a way that the top of the pole was near eye level. At first I just thought it was a huge vulture, but while sitting there it spread its wings as if to show off to us. It also had a tag on it, something I think normal vultures don’t get.

Wow Steve, memories. I'm 65 and a local and I remember driving my old VW Bus up and down that road a few times from 1976-77. Even back then with the road intact, it was always a bit sketchy. The drop-off from the side of the road was crazy. Thanks for this posting.

California, such a beautiful state.

Been up there multiple times on motorcycle and always wondered when the heck the road was going to be finished, but turns out it's been out forever already. Thanks for the history lesson.

Thank you for doing this video. I grew up in Cucamonga (Rancho Cucamonga) from age 10 (1977) and spent every chance up in the Mt. Baldy/Cucamonga Wilderness area. Back in the spring of 2010, my wife and I, with our 4 year old son, camped at Crystal Lake for a week. We had a three room tent and were the only ones in that HUGE campground. They had just reopened a week before because of the big fire in the area four years prior. I saw it online as open, and we headed up. The store was open, and the owners (a sweet older couple) were so excited!!! It was an awesome hidden gem. A few nights had two other campers and a few day users, but most nights, we were alone. It was surreal. The big trees and the isolated ambiance were something else. It is a fond memory of my son's toddler years and his mother in her good time. Would love to go back. We live in the Midwest now so...

I grew up just a few miles from there. When I was a kid rt 39 was still open through San Gabriel Canyon; my parents would take us up on the Angeles Crest as a scenic route out to Baldy. Then the road was closed... and never opened again. We moved away in 1979 when I was in high school, but I've never forgotten and still miss it.

I grew up near Beach Blvd. (Hwy. 39) in Orange County and never knew it went all the way up into the mountains like this. This was a fascinating video! After 72 years I'm still learning about the place where I've always lived. Thanks!😊

I got to drive on the closed section back in 09 while working for the forest service. It was pretty rad. We even got to see a pack of Big Horn sheep while we creeped along towards Angeles Crest Highway