Travel/POI: Glendora Mountain Road, California USA

Glendora Mountain Road is a very scenic mountain drive in the U.S. state of California. It stretches for 34.76 km (21.6 miles), extending north from the city of Glendora (in the San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County) to Mount Baldy (in San Bernardino County). The road is commonly known as GMR by locals.

It was a nice day on Sunday (February 19, 2023), so we decided to go for a ride and check it out. The road is fully paved, but it's quite steep. We didn’t see many cars, but there were quite a few people riding bikes up the hill. I really admire their physical strength and endurance—it's definitely not easy to ride such a steep slope all the way up.

1: It is refreshing to look far from up high.

2: Looking at the snow-capped mountains on one side, and overlooking the San Gabriel River on the other. We also found very tiny wildflowers (common stork's-bill) at our feet.

3: Mountains and river from different angles.

4: There are mountains, valleys and people who ride hard to climb up.

My husband originally planned to drive to Mount Baldy via Glendora Ridge Road. However, when we got there, we found out that Glendora Ridge Road was closed, so we continued driving down Glendora Mountain Road. My husband stopped at the Oaks Picnic Area to check the map. I noticed that the stream of the San Gabriel River was clear, and watching it flow downstream was very relaxing.

While driving down the mountain, we suddenly noticed a group of people parked along the side of the road, watching something. Some were even sitting on folding chairs, eating snacks, and seemingly enjoying a good show. Driven by curiosity, we also stopped the car to see what was happening.

It turned out that a group of off-road vehicles was playing on the uneven riverbed, and one of them had gotten stuck in the mud. Several other vehicles tried to pull it out. One of them even broke down in the process and had to be towed away by another vehicle.

After a while, the vehicle that had been stuck somehow managed to drive itself out of the mud. What an interesting event to witness on a Sunday morning outing!