Gates Canyon Road Climb
- long (11.1 km)
- 6.9 mi
- long (11.1 km)
- of climbing (748 m)
- 2,454 ft
- of climbing (748 m)
- average grade
- 6.7%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 17.3%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 279 ft at the bottom to 2,733 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 Gates Canyon Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Gates Canyon 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 Gates Canyon Road
- How long and steep is the Gates Canyon Road climb?
- 6.9 miles (11.1 km) at 6.7% on average, climbing 2,454 ft (748 m) from 279 ft to 2,733 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 17.3%. That makes it a Category 1 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 38.37621, -122.0256, where Gates Canyon Road leaves Pleasants Valley Road, and tops out on the road at 38.40814, -122.11026.
- Is Gates Canyon Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 69% 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
- Mix Canyon RoadCat 1 · 4.6 mi at 9.2% · 2,244 ft · starts 2.2 mi away
- Grandview DriveCat 3 · 1.3 mi at 10.5% · 732 ft · starts 5.9 mi away
- Hidden Springs RoadCat 3 · 1.1 mi at 12.3% · 682 ft · starts 6.6 mi away
- Twin Sisters RoadCat 3 · 2.0 mi at 8.8% · 942 ft · starts 7.7 mi away
- Monticello Road from Wooden Valley RoadCat 3 · 2.0 mi at 5.1% · 538 ft · starts 9.5 mi away
- Green Valley Road from Wild Horse Valley RoadCat 3 · 2.0 mi at 7.1% · 755 ft · starts 12 mi away
- Steele Canyon RoadCat 3 · 3.4 mi at 3% · 535 ft · starts 13 mi away
- Wild Horse Valley RoadCat 2 · 2.8 mi at 8.7% · 1,283 ft · starts 13 mi away
Bike crash hotspots nearby
Found from OpenStreetMap roads and USGS 3DEP elevation; ranked on shape only. Category 1: 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.