pic from riding California's Western Divide hwy...

[eyesurgeon]

With a name like Western Divide highway, one cannot help but want to ride it. I didn't take a lot of pics today but thought I'd share what I had.

 

This lonely road passes through the southern-most part of Sequoia National Park in central California. It's out of the way and there are no touristas to speak of so you have the road pretty much to yourself. Except for the cows, see below. The ride begins near sea level in the valley floor and is steep, narrow, and twisty-- definite sportbike heaven. See the water?

 

 

Cool pleasant air up here out of the heat of the valley.

 

 

When you get to about the 6,000-foot level, the road turns into an excellent and empty high-standard highway through a wonderful forest next to emerald meadows. There is even a grove of giant sequoia trees.

 

Happy California cows, sharing the road. This is the west after all.

 

 

Talked to the cowboys for a few minutes, these guys are the real deal. The cows definitely did not like my GT and it took some serious cowboying along with well-trained dogs to get them past me.

 

 

Sadly a common site lately here in California. Foscheck fire retardant dropped from a flying supertanker. Around the corner was a charred grove of trees.

 

 

Western Divide highway is another great reason to ride Sequoia National park. It takes me two hours just to get there and I've only ridden it once before this morning. Man, was it worth the trip.

[russell_bynum]

Nice. I did that road back in July of 2002 and I remember it as one of the highlights of that trip.

[keithb]

Thanks for the pics Rodney. I was just on W.D. Hwy. yesterday. For some reason I seem to forget how many curves there are going up 190 from Springville to Quaking Aspen/Ponderosa. Western Divide Hwy. was quite clean all the way to the Kern River yesterday.

 

Have you ridden into Sequoia Nat. Park from Badger going thru Eshom Valley? It is a back way into the park and there is a beautiful stand of giant redwoods and the smaller version. You go thru Redwood Canyon. Easily doable on your GT. About 3 miles of hard packed dirt out of 12 total miles. No big deal at all actually. Absolutely spectacular.

[Highway41]

What are the route number(s)? Need to add the Western Divide to my "To Do" road list.

Bill

[keithb]

From Porterville, Ca. to Camp Nelson it is Rt. 190 going east. Then it changes at Quaking Aspen to Western Divide Hwy (107). It goes south towards Johnsondale, Kernville, or Ca. Hot Springs . Sorry but not every road is numbered up there like you would think. In terms of twisties it will give just about ANY road a run for its money. There is a least a 5'K elevation change from Springville to Camp Nelson (15 miles).

[eyesurgeon]

What are the route number(s)? Need to add the Western Divide to my "To Do" road list.

Bill

 

Here's a map.

[BabyCow]

U know the best roads. Thank u for posting