Zink Road Climb
- long (4.5 km)
- 2.8 mi
- long (4.5 km)
- of climbing (269 m)
- 883 ft
- of climbing (269 m)
- average grade
- 6%
- average grade
- steepest 500 m
- 12.5%
- steepest 500 m
Elevation profile
From 2,356 ft at the bottom to 3,238 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 Zink Road this week
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Is it safe to bike up Zink 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 Zink Road
- How long and steep is the Zink Road climb?
- 2.8 miles (4.5 km) at 6% on average, climbing 883 ft (269 m) from 2,356 ft to 3,238 ft. The steepest half kilometre averages 12.5%. That makes it a Category 3 climb.
- Where does the climb start and finish?
- It starts at 39.63893, -121.37016, where Zink Road leaves Bald Rock Road, and tops out at Bald Rock Road at 39.66087, -121.3355.
- Is Zink Road paved?
- Mostly: OpenStreetMap tags 65% 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
- Bald Rock RoadCat 2 · 7.9 mi at 3.4% · 1,421 ft · starts 1.2 mi away
- Galen Ridge RoadCat 2 · 3.4 mi at 7.6% · 1,385 ft · starts 1.7 mi away
- Big Ridge Road near ParadiseCat 3 · 2.5 mi at 4.8% · 640 ft · starts 2.1 mi away
- Edan Canyon Road near ParadiseCat 3 · 0.6 mi at 18.5% · 564 ft · starts 2.6 mi away
- Edan Canyon Road near ParadiseCat 3 · 0.3 mi at 39.9% · 564 ft · starts 2.6 mi away
- Bloomer Hill RoadCat 2 · 3.0 mi at 7.6% · 1,224 ft · starts 3.3 mi away
- Big Ridge Road near OrovilleCat 3 · 3.3 mi at 4.7% · 820 ft · starts 3.3 mi away
- Island Bar Hill RoadCat 2 · 4.3 mi at 6.4% · 1,473 ft · starts 3.4 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.