O'Brien Mountain Road Climb
- long (1.9 km)
- 1.2 mi
- long (1.9 km)
- of climbing (198 m)
- 650 ft
- of climbing (198 m)
- average grade
- 10.6%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 13.4%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 1,640 ft at the bottom to 2,290 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 O'Brien Mountain Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up O'Brien Mountain 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 O'Brien Mountain Road
- How long and steep is the O'Brien Mountain Road climb?
- 1.2 miles (1.9 km) at 10.6% on average, climbing 650 ft (198 m) from 1,640 ft to 2,290 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 13.4%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 40.79099, -122.32396, and tops out at Grey Fawn Trail at 40.79744, -122.33748.
- Is O'Brien Mountain Road paved?
- Yes, by its OpenStreetMap tags.
- 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
- Packers Bay RoadCat 3 · 1.9 mi at 6.3% · 630 ft · starts 1.5 mi away
- O'Brien Inlet RoadCat 3 · 2.0 mi at 6.3% · 650 ft · starts 2.0 mi away
- Lakeview Drive near Shasta LakeCat 3 · 1.6 mi at 7.7% · 640 ft · starts 2.1 mi away
- Ycotti Creek RoadCat 3 · 1.5 mi at 8.3% · 676 ft · starts 2.9 mi away
- Gilman RoadCat 3 · 3.1 mi at 4.7% · 768 ft · starts 4.1 mi away
- Salt Creek Road from Complict Point RoadCat 3 · 1.3 mi at 8.2% · 545 ft · starts 4.2 mi away
- Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity Nra from Fawndale RoadCat 2 · 3.7 mi at 6.5% · 1,260 ft · starts 4.6 mi away
- Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity Nra near Shasta LakeCat 3 · 1.4 mi at 7.1% · 528 ft · starts 5.3 mi away
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.