Tunnel Road Climb from Mission Canyon Road
- long (3.6 km)
- 2.3 mi
- long (3.6 km)
- of climbing (288 m)
- 945 ft
- of climbing (288 m)
- average grade
- 7.9%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 16.7%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 591 ft at the bottom to 1,535 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 Tunnel Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Tunnel 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 Tunnel Road
- How long and steep is the Tunnel Road from Mission Canyon Road climb?
- 2.3 miles (3.6 km) at 7.9% on average, climbing 945 ft (288 m) from 591 ft to 1,535 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 16.7%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 34.44992, -119.7104, where Tunnel Road leaves Mission Canyon Road, and tops out at Bubb's Peak at 34.47233, -119.70592.
- Is Tunnel 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
- Gibraltar RoadHC · 6.5 mi at 7.7% · 2,664 ft · starts 1.0 mi away
- Las Alturas RoadCat 3 · 1.4 mi at 8.2% · 587 ft · starts 2.0 mi away
- Chumash Highway near Santa BarbaraCat 2 · 6.9 mi at 5.2% · 1,870 ft · starts 3.2 mi away
- East Camino Cielo Road from Gibraltar RoadCat 3 · 1.6 mi at 6.3% · 545 ft · starts 3.2 mi away
- Hot Springs Road near Santa BarbaraCat 3 · 2.5 mi at 5% · 656 ft · starts 3.8 mi away
- East Camino Cielo Road from Arroyo Burro RoadCat 3 · 2.7 mi at 6% · 860 ft · starts 4.5 mi away
- North San Marcos RoadCat 2 · 4.1 mi at 6% · 1,289 ft · starts 4.9 mi away
- Painted Cave RoadCat 2 · 3.1 mi at 8.3% · 1,371 ft · starts 5.6 mi away
Bike crash hotspots 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.