http://www.dirtopia.com/wiki/Main_Divide_Road
Total trip time with 3 kids: 7 hours
forgot to reset odometer for trip mileage
Spectacular views of Orange County, LA County, Catalina and San Clemente Islands, Point Mugu, Corona, Lake Elsinore, Lake Perris, Inland Empire, San Diego County, and you can even see Mexico.
We loaded up all 3 kids early Saturday morning and headed down the 5 fwy to Ortega Highway towards Lake Elsinore. Shortly after passing The Candy Store in Ortega Oaks, and Hells Kitchen in El Cariso, we arrived at N Main Divide Road (3S04) after passing it once and ending up halfway down the road at The Look Out restaurant.
The first 2 miles are poorly paved and non exciting. 3S04 splits to the right from the road you are traveling on before you reach a nice campground called Blue Jay. From here the road turns into dirt, with scattered fallen rock and branches throughout the entire trail. 3S04 runs along the sides of the mountains with long steep drop offs.
Shortly after passing Upper Holy Jim trail on 3S04, the road climbs to the top of Santiago Peak where you can park and hike around to check out a huge complex of antennas and relays. Im not much of a communications buff, so i really didnt know what i was looking at. Someone who is into this stuff can spend a couple of hours up there.
After leaving Santiago Peak, you drive along some seriously steep mountainsides. In a couple of miles, Harding Truck Trail meets with 3S04. A few more miles, Bedford Motorway, Eagle Truck Trail, and several little hiking trails. I chose to stay on 3S04 because that was what the original plan was. There is another antenna site which i dont know the name of, and also a cool doppler radar along the route.
About a mile after the doppler radar is a cool site called Beek's Place. Beek's Place is an old homestead setup years ago to serve as a fire lookout. In 1941, some antenna or power line mounts were setup. You can see the dates in the concrete. Spend an hour or so walking around and checking things out. We ran into a nice guy in a yellow Jeep. He used to hang out on adventure4x4 as SOCALFJ. After we were done exploring, we took Skyline Drive down to the back of Corona, and went home. If you continue on Main Divide 3S04, you can visit Sierra Peak. Sierra Peak is the antenna site you can see from the 91 and northern OC.
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