Boulder Creek Road Climb near San Diego
- long (5.5 km)
- 3.4 mi
- long (5.5 km)
- of climbing (281 m)
- 922 ft
- of climbing (281 m)
- average grade
- 5.1%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 7.6%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 3,018 ft at the bottom to 3,940 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 Boulder Creek Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Boulder Creek 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: no bike crashes were reported along the climb from 2021–2025.
Common questions about Boulder Creek Road
- How long and steep is the Boulder Creek Road near San Diego climb?
- 3.4 miles (5.5 km) at 5.1% on average, climbing 922 ft (281 m) from 3,018 ft to 3,940 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 7.6%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 32.89805, -116.647, and tops out on the road at 32.93043, -116.63755.
- Is Boulder Creek Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 58% 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
- Route 79 near San DiegoCat 3 · 5.1 mi at 3.4% · 922 ft · starts 3.9 mi away
- Lookout RoadCat 2 · 2.7 mi at 11.1% · 1,604 ft · starts 5.7 mi away
- Willows RoadCat 3 · 3.6 mi at 3.2% · 604 ft · starts 6.6 mi away
- Upper Green Valley RoadCat 3 · 2.4 mi at 4.2% · 545 ft · starts 7.4 mi away
- North Peak RoadCat 2 · 1.6 mi at 14.5% · 1,204 ft · starts 7.6 mi away
- Pine Creek Road from Old Highway 80Cat 2 · 7.9 mi at 4.2% · 1,759 ft · starts 7.6 mi away
- Cuyamaca Forest RoadCat 3 · 1.2 mi at 11.2% · 686 ft · starts 7.7 mi away
- Eagle Peak RoadCat 1 · dirt · 8.5 mi at 5.3% · 2,379 ft · starts 8.0 mi away
Places to ride to nearby
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 3: 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.