Alpine Road Climb near Portola Valley
- long (10.2 km)
- 6.3 mi
- long (10.2 km)
- of climbing (362 m)
- 1,188 ft
- of climbing (362 m)
- average grade
- 3.6%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 8.3%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 279 ft at the bottom to 1,467 ft at the top. Grades are averaged over each half kilometre, from USGS elevation data, so short ramps can be steeper than they show.
Weather at the top of Alpine Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Alpine Road?
We don't rate roads as safe or unsafe: crash counts can't say how risky a ride is, and roads people like to ride draw more riders, so they see more crashes. What the records show: 1 bike crash was reported on or beside Alpine Road along the climb from 2021–2025.
Common questions about Alpine Road
- How long and steep is the Alpine Road near Portola Valley climb?
- 6.3 miles (10.2 km) at 3.6% on average, climbing 1,188 ft (362 m) from 279 ft to 1,467 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 8.3%. That makes it a Category 2 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 37.39662, -122.19235, and tops out at Alpine Road Trail at 37.33615, -122.1991.
- Is Alpine Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 87% of the climb as paved, and the rest as dirt or gravel.
- How is the category worked out?
- From the climb's shape only: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes.
- Where does this data come from?
- The climb is found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation (every climb, not a list of famous ones). Access is from OpenStreetMap tags; gates and closures change, so obey posted signs. Crash counts are police reports in the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS) on data.ca.gov, counted where their map location is within 100 ft of the climb. The forecast is from the National Weather Service.
Other climbs nearby
- Los Trancos RoadCat 3 · 1.8 mi at 6.2% · 574 ft · starts 2.3 mi away
- Page Mill RoadCat 1 · 11 mi at 3.8% · 2,211 ft · starts 2.9 mi away
- Old La Honda Road from Portola RoadCat 2 · 3.3 mi at 7.5% · 1,296 ft · starts 3.0 mi away
- Vista Verde WayCat 3 · 1.1 mi at 10.5% · 600 ft · starts 3.5 mi away
- Skyline Boulevard from La Honda RoadCat 3 · 4.4 mi at 3.7% · 866 ft · starts 4.0 mi away
- Moody RoadCat 3 · 2.8 mi at 4.1% · 614 ft · starts 4.3 mi away
- Woodside RoadCat 2 · 8.1 mi at 3.3% · 1,401 ft · starts 4.4 mi away
- Kings Mountain RoadCat 2 · 4.9 mi at 6.4% · 1,654 ft · starts 4.7 mi away
Places to ride to nearby
Bike crash hotspots nearby
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 2: length in metres × average grade (%) of 16,000 or more for Cat 3, 32,000 for Cat 2, 64,000 for Cat 1 and 80,000 for HC. It describes how hard the climb is, not traffic or crashes. Crashes: bike crashes reported within 100 ft of the climb, 2021–2025, from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS), counted only where the report has map coordinates. Weather: National Weather Service. Access from OpenStreetMap tags; obey posted signs. How the data works.