All the rides in this directory are good. But I know—you want to know which ones are the really great ones. Here are Letterman lists of the best rides overall, the best descents, the steepest climbs, and so on:
BEST RIDES OVERALL
Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie/Soquel-San Jose
Big Basin(weekdays only)
Bristlecone Pine Forest
Caliente Loop
Comptche to Ukiah
Concow Road
Conzelman Loop
Crater Lake
Cream of the Sierra Century
Dead Indian Loop
East Carmel Valley Road/Cachagua Road
Ebbetts Pass
Eureka Canyon/Highland Way
Felton Empire Road/Empire Grade
Forks of Salmon
Gibraltar Road
Gold Beach Century
Golden Gate Bridge Loop
Grizzly Peak Boulevard to Redwood Road
Jesus Maria Road
Kings Canyon
Lassen National Park
Limantour Road
McKenzie Pass
Mendocino/Comptche
Morgan Territory Road
Mosquito Ridge Road
Mt. Diablo
Mt. Figueroa
Mt. Hamilton
Mt. Tamalpais
Muir Woods Loop
Nacimiento-Fergusson Road
Paradise to Butte Meadows
Peachy Canyon Road
Pescadero/Tunitas Creek Road
Prefumo Canyon Road/See Canyon Road
Robinson Canyon Road
Sacramento River Trail
San Juan Canyon Road
Siuslaw River Road
Tour de Fronds
Tuna Canyon Road Loop
Tunnel Road/Claremont Ave. Loop
Wildcat Canyon Road/Happy Valley Road/Nimitz Way
TOP TEN (OKAY, ELEVEN) (in no particular order)
McKenzie Pass
Tour de Fronds
Forks of Salmon
Ebbetts Pass
Mendocino/Comptche
Mt. Tamalpais
Pescadero/Tunitas Creek Road
Robinson Canyon Road
Nacimiento-Fergusson Road
Mt. Figueroa
Kings Canyon
And the best ride of them all is (drum roll) Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd. Or Mt. Tamalpais. Or Ebbetts Pass. Or Kings Canyon. Or McKenzie Pass.
BEST DESCENTS (north to south)
McKenzie Pass
Gold Beach Century
Old Siskiyou Highway
Mt. Shasta Climbs
Paradise to Butte Meadows (Inskip to Stirling City)
Honeyrun to Centerville Road (last 1.5 miles before the gravel)
Leggett to the Sea
Branscomb Road (west end)
Ebbetts Pass
Lumpkin Road (first/last 7 miles)
Mosquito Ridge Road
Clinton Road
Yosemite Tour (from the Valley to El Portal)
Wooden Valley/Pleasants Valley(Mix Canyon)
King’s Ridge (the first 2.2 miles of Ft. Ross Rd.)
Limantour Road (east side only)
Tunnel Road/Claremont Ave. Loop
Mt.Diablo
Mt. Tamalpais(south side of summit)
Muir Woods Loop
Grizzly Peak Boulevard to Redwood Road (Claremont Ave.)
Morgan TerritoryRoad(south side)
Sierra Road/Felter Road (Felter only)
Mt. Hamilton
Pescadero/Tunitas CreekRoad (Tunitas Creek Road)
Big Basin
Felton Empire/Empire Grade (Felton Empire only)
Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie/Soquel-San Jose (Soquel-San Jose only)
Robinson CanyonRoad
Shirtail Canyon Road
Big Trees Parkway
Nacimiento-Fergusson Road(east side of summit)
Peachy CanyonRoad
Kings Canyon
Tuna CanyonRoadLoop (Tuna Canyon Rd)
And the best of them all is (drumroll) Pescadero/Tunitas Creek Road, or McKenzie Pass, or Ebbetts Pass, or Felton Empire. It’s a tough call.
HARDEST CLIMBS (north to south)
Bestrides isn’t about hard per se, and I find most of the west’s hardest climbs to be in fairly barren terrain so they’re not in Bestrides at all. If you want to find tough-for-tough’s-sake climbs, check out pjammcycling.com.
Tour de Fronds
Forks of Salmon (clockwise only)
Trinity Center to Callahan
Iowa HillRoad
WildcatRoad(Wilson Hill Road)
Comptche to Ukiah
Mountain View Road
Wooden Valley/Pleasants Valley(Mix Canyon)
Pine FlatRoad
Sweetwater SpringsRoad
King’s Ridge
Welch Creek Road (in the Calaveras ride‘s Adding Miles section)
SierraRoad
Big Basin (China Grade)
Santa Rosa Creek Road (The Wall)
Gibraltar Road
Devil’s Postpile
Bistlecone Pine Forest
Whitney Portal Road
Horseshoe Meadows Road
GRAND VISTARIDES(in alphabetical order)
Bristlecone Pine Forest
Carson Pass Plus
Conzelman Loop
Crater Lake
Ebbetts Pass
Gibraltar Road
Glendora Ridge Road
Gold Beach Century
Golden Gate Bridge Loop
Grizzly Peak Blvd. to Redwood Road
Hood River to the Dalles
Horseshoe Meadows Road
Igo-Ono
Kings Canyon
Lassen National Park
Marys Peak Road
Mosquito Ridge Road
Mt. Diablo
Mt. Figueroa
Mt. Hamilton
Mt. Tamalpais
Nacimiento-Fergusson Road
Pine Flat Road
Prefumo Canyon Road/See Canyon Road
San Francisco’s Wiggle Loop
Santa Rita Road/Cypress Mountain Road
Santa Rosa Creek Road
SierraRoad/Felter Road
Tuna Canyon Road Loop
Whitney Portal Road
FLAT(TER) RIDES
There are few flat rides in Bestrides.org. For me, an essential element of a great ride is some vertical. But there are days when your legs don’t want to work, so here is a list of rides from Bestrides that are, with the occasional route tweaking, pretty flat.
Avenue of the Giants (all)
Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie/Soquel-San Jose (Branciforte Dr. only)
Blue Lakes Road (gradually steepening towards the summit)
Branscomb Road (from Laytonville westward to the climb only)
Cabrillo National Monument (turn around at the final hill)
Camptonville to Downieville (the 10 miles after North Yuba River bridge)
Covelo Road (from Eel River Bridge to the Dos Rios Bridge)
East Carmel Valley Road/Cachagua Road (the first several miles on ECVR, until the first big climb)
Elk River Road (all)
Galice to Golden (all)
Gardiner to Eugene (first 40 miles)
Gold Beach Century (northern loop only)
Golden Gate Loop (all)
Hood River to the Dalles (if you ride to the Rowena Loops and turn around)
Jalama Road (one good hill)
Mendocino/Comptche (the Hwy 128 leg only)
Mission Bay to La Jolla (all)
North Fork Siuslaw Road (first 12 miles)
San Francisco’s Wiggle Loop (bypass Fort Mason and the Legion of Honor to make it flatter)
Scott River Road (all but the last mile or so before the turn-around)
Seventeen-Mile Drive (if you ride to the Carmel turn-off and ride back the way you came)
Siletz Bay to Newport Inland (all)
Vernonia to Astoria (if you skip the back road option at the end and the climb to the column)
Chester Back Roads (all)
Wooden Valley/Pleasants Valley (if you skip Mix Canyon and the detour to Cantelow Road)
Kings Canyon (the last 16 miles before the dead end)
Huasna Road (ride to the one and only substantial hill, then turn around)
Mendocino Coastal (from the southern end to Caspar Beach)
Cañada Road Plus (drive to the top of the Cañada Road climb; ride the rest of Cañada Road to Gilroy Springs Rd.; ride GSR to gate; return)
Sacramento River Trail (sections 2 and 4)
South Round Valley Road
And five rides in the Adding Miles sections of other rides:
Carson Road (in the Apple Hill loop in Mosquito Road)
Old Haul Road (in Mendocino/Comptche)
Half Moon Bay Coastal Trail (in Purissima Creek Road)
Chalk Hill Road (in Pine Flat Road)
Bayshore Parkway (in the Adding Miles section of Mission Bay to La Jolla)
BEST OREGON FOREST RIDES (in alphabetical order)
Alpine to Alsea
Aufderheide Hwy
Brice Creek Road
Lolo Pass Back Road
McKenzie Pass
Quartzville Road
Siuslaw River Road
Tour de Fronds
REDWOODS RIDES (in order of tree abundance and splendor)
Avenue of the Giants
Mendocino/Comptche
Big Basin (sadly now burned)
Bean Creek/Mtn. Charlie/Soquel-San Jose
Felton Empire/Empire Grade (burned)
Bonny Doon Rd/Empire Grade (burned)
Pescadero/Tunitas Creek Rd.
Leggett to the Sea
Philo-Greenwood Rd.
Kings Ridge
(The Kings Canyon ride doesn’t go through Redwoods but is a short ride from Giant Sequoias. The Big Trees Parkway doesn’t go past Redwoods or sequoias but begins at the Calaveras Big Trees giant sequoia walking loop.)
