Mount Hamilton Road
- mapped
- 23.5 mi
- mapped
- motorcycle crashes, 2021–2025
- 19
- motorcycle crashes, 2021–2025
- serious or fatal
- 8
- serious or fatal
- fatal
- 1
- fatal
Is Mount Hamilton Road open today?
Not a state route, so Caltrans doesn’t list it.
Checked Fri, Nov 13, 10:11 PM Pacific. These lists don't include every closure: Forest Service gates and fire closures can be missing. All riding roads this week.
Is Mount Hamilton Road safe to ride on a motorcycle?
We don't rate roads as safe or unsafe: crash counts can't say how risky a road is, and popular riding roads have more crashes partly because more people ride them. What the records show: 19 motorcycle crashes were reported along its 23.5 mapped miles from 2021–2025, 8 of them serious or fatal (1 fatal). 53% involved no other vehicle. What to watch for: Narrow with lots of blind corners, cyclists, and gravel. Slow, technical riding.
This week's weather
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Motorcycle crashes and deaths on Mount Hamilton Road
19 motorcycle crashes were reported within 60 m of the road from 2021–2025: 8 killed or seriously injured someone, and 1 was fatal. 53% involved no other vehicle. Busier roads have more crashes partly because more people ride them, so these counts don't say how risky the road is.
Bends, straights and junctions
Outside city limits, 20 motorcycle crashes were reported on Mount Hamilton Road from 2021–2026, 3 of them within 40 m of a junction. Of the other 17, 16 (94%) were in bends tighter than a 100 m radius, which make up 86% of the road. That is about the bends’ share of the road. 9 of the 12 crashes with no other vehicle were in bends.
Crashes with another vehicle in bends are often an oncoming car across the centre line: keep away from the centre line in blind bends.
How we tell bends from straights, and every riding road compared
Places along the way
Camping near Mount Hamilton Road
Campgrounds and RV parks within about 5 miles of the road (straight line), nearest first. Seasons, fire restrictions and closures change, so check with whoever runs it before you go.
- Equestrian CampgroundCounty of Santa Clara · 1,568 ft · 0.5 mi from the roadOn the map
- Group SiteGroup campground · 1,637 ft · 0.6 mi from the roadOn the map
- Hall's Valley Campground1,675 ft · 0.7 mi from the roadOn the map
- Woodland Youth Camp1,763 ft · 0.7 mi from the roadOn the map
- Oak Knoll Group Area444 ft · 4.8 mi from the roadOn the map
- Youth Group Camp Area433 ft · 4.8 mi from the roadOn the map
Campgrounds from Recreation.gov (federal campgrounds, 2026-10-18) and OpenStreetMap (2026-09-28); water, toilets and showers only where they're listed. Elevation from USGS.
Common questions about Mount Hamilton Road
- What is Mount Hamilton Road like to ride?
- Hundreds of corners up to Lick Observatory.
- How long is Mount Hamilton Road?
- About 23.5 miles as mapped in OpenStreetMap, for the stretch we cover.
- Is Mount Hamilton Road open today?
- Check Caltrans QuickMap (quickmap.dot.ca.gov) for closures, chain controls and roadwork before you go. Mountain roads close for snow, rockslides and fire, and some sections close every winter.
Other riding roads nearby
Crashes: motorcycle crashes reported within 60 m of the road, 2021–2025, from the California Crash Reporting System (CCRS). Road: © OpenStreetMap contributors. Weather: National Weather Service. Distances to other roads are between their middles, in a straight line. How the data works.