Santa Catalina Road Climb
- long (2.8 km)
- 1.7 mi
- long (2.8 km)
- of climbing (190 m)
- 623 ft
- of climbing (190 m)
- average grade
- 6.8%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 14.2%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 938 ft at the bottom to 1,562 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 Santa Catalina Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Santa Catalina 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 Santa Catalina Road
- How long and steep is the Santa Catalina Road climb?
- 1.7 miles (2.8 km) at 6.8% on average, climbing 623 ft (190 m) from 938 ft to 1,562 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 14.2%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 33.30719, -117.08316, where Santa Catalina Road leaves Lilac Road, and tops out at Santa Virginia Drive at 33.30443, -117.0642.
- Is Santa Catalina Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 60% 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
- Lilac RoadCat 3 · 2.2 mi at 7.3% · 846 ft · starts 3.1 mi away
- Couser Canyon RoadCat 3 · 3.4 mi at 4.9% · 866 ft · starts 3.2 mi away
- Rice Canyon Road from Pala RoadCat 3 · 3.3 mi at 4.2% · 732 ft · starts 3.9 mi away
- Pala del Norte RoadCat 3 · 1.4 mi at 12.4% · 896 ft · starts 4.2 mi away
- Magee Road from Highway 76Cat 2 · 5.7 mi at 5.3% · 1,598 ft · starts 4.2 mi away
- Cole Grade RoadCat 3 · 2.4 mi at 7.4% · 942 ft · starts 4.3 mi away
- Old Highway 395 from Dulin RoadCat 3 · 1.8 mi at 6.9% · 640 ft · starts 4.5 mi away
- North Old Highway 395Cat 3 · 1.9 mi at 5.5% · 551 ft · starts 4.7 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.