Drive: Little Tujunga Canyon Road (11 mile drive one way)
This little drive is perfect for those looking to kill a couple hours. I call it a proving ground because every time I drive it I learn a little more about my driving style. It’s the type of road that will challenge you just enough to give your mind a work out, yet close enough to town, so its easily accessible for routine drives. It’s a consistently exciting place to do some “road work” and learn to drive a little better.
Where it’s at: After exiting the 210 freeway northeast onto Foothill Blvd, make a quick left on Osborne St. You will come to a stop sign at a ranch. Say hi to the horses. Little Tujunga Canyon Road Starts after that one stop sign and is a brilliant uninterrupted canyon road for the remainder of the drive. This route is 11 miles in length and without traffic you can savor every bit of it.
The picnic part comes at the end of Little Tujunga where there is a space to pull over with tables/benches, and a few trees to stop and have a moment. There aren’t any restrooms but the spot overlooks some of the canyon, and you often get a slight breeze, which is welcome because it can get pretty toasty. Convertible drivers, this is a good place to do some top down motoring. After the picnic area, the road changes names to Sand Canyon Rd where corners become less technical and eventually that spits you back out to the 14 freeway. I prefer to just turn around after the picnic and enjoy the canyon all over again.
I’m not usually a fan of downhill driving, but this one offers a lot of sharp elevation changes so although it’s clear when you are traveling up the canyon vs down, there are plenty of sections where you are braking and then quickly on throttle again. A rare occasion where the return trip is just as enjoyable as the first run. There’s nothing worse than driving a road where you have to constantly brake coming back, so Little Tujunga Canyon Rd. gets an A+ for up and down drives. One thing to beware of is this canyon is very popular with cyclists so, as always, be mindful of others while driving.
About 50 minutes from LA, Little Tujunga Canyon Rd. takes another 20ish minutes, making it ~140 minutes total (~160 if you stop to picnic).
Need to take a drive here!