To say there’s a lot going on in Cajon Pass is putting it mildly.
Driving a wedge between the San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountain ranges, the Cajon Pass is one of So Cal’s major arteries, connecting the L.A. basin with the high-desert communities of Victorville and Barstow. Interstate 15, which runs through Cajon Pass, sits within view of several railroad lines, which also use the Cajon to reach the high desert. The grade, by freeway or by rail, is as mild as practical, but is still steep enough to make driving potentially hazardous especially when the weather is nasty. Rain, snow, fog, and wind are all commonplace there. A railroad engineer I met several years ago told me that engineers make an extra eight dollars per hour due to the hazardous conditions if their route takes them through Cajon Pass.
Highway 138 cuts though the Cajon’s beltline. Taken west, Highway138 leads to the ski areas around Wrightwood. Taken east, the 138 ends up by Silverwood lake and its boating and fishing opportunities.
Several off-road routes are there for the driving, too. Cleghorn road has its own exit off of I-15 and leads over the ridge into the valley by Silverwood lake. There’s an OHV route that begins adjacent to the northbound on-ramp for I-15 off of highway 138. This OHV route leads to the Baldy Mesa trail system, which offers intertwining routes suitable for dirt bikes, quads, and 4x4’s alike.
The rock outcroppings and miles of winding dirt roads and trails make the Cajon Pass area great for photography, too. There are good spots for shooting creepy crawly trail machines, and good spots for shooting high-speed prerunners.
Last Saturday, I needed some in-the-dirt photos to go with a tech story about BDS Suspension’s six-inch long-arm kit for the XJ Cherokee. Jay Parodi and I piled into his newly-built XJ and motored for Cajon Pass. The weather was wet, and Jay had warned me that “I don’t do mud!” No problem. The sandy and rocky soil of Cajon tolerates weather exceptionally well, and some newly-formed ruts made things even better, as they offered a place to drop a wheel into and flex the XJ’s long-arm suspension. We shot a few dozen photos in the area by Mormon Rocks, and headed back to the concrete jungle from whence we came. We were home within an hour.
Although I’m quick to sing the praises of Cajon Pass, I have to admit that I need to spend some more time there, hunting and pecking around for a few more photo spots. The Mormon Rocks area is spectacular, but it’s a place I’ve been to often enough that even if you don’t think it’s repetitive, I do. I’ll be out there exploring Cajon Pass again soon.