Main Divide Road from Corona to Ortega Hwy via dirt.Saturday i went out solo on a day run up to Saddleback Peak in the Santa Ana Mtn range. It was a nice break from unpacking boxes at the new house. I met up with a few good friends at the bottom of the mountain and we headed out.
The weather was changing drastically all throughout the day. One moment it would be foggy and cold and the next minute it would be warm and sunny. That's Southern California for you! It just had rained the day before so there was a good chance we'd run into mud and even some snow at the higher elevations.Because Main Divide is nearly 40+ miles of off road we chose to air down. Later on we were greatful because the road can become annoying after a while of washboard road.
We found what looked to be a 2wd Grand Cherokee that went off the edge of the side of the mtn. This has to be somewhat recent because I hadn't seen it a few months ago when i was visiting last time. Talk about a wild ride. Hopefully no one was in it when it went over the side. We are still trying to figure out how it may have happened.
While we were investigating the Grand Cherokee a plane kept doing flyby's around us waiving to us. We snapped this pic. Guy lives in Corona, about 5 blocks from our house later to find out!
Shot of "Beak's Place". Old cabin on top of the mountain range. This was a strange visit. There was a flame still going in the fireplace when we arrived. We're pretty sure it was from people camping there the night before.. but what if it was "Beak"?
The Doplar Radar tower. This is where we get our weather information from. It's pretty big in person.
We proceeded down the trail until we came to a helicopter landing pad. Where we just had to go see. BELOW: Shot of my good friend in his Ford Superduty Diesel we call the "locomotive" climbing up to the landing pad.
Next it was my turn.
Great overhead shot of our 80 series coming across the ridge. I actually snuck up on a Bobcat in this section. I wish i had my camera ready at the time!
Amazing photo showing how the fog stops at the top of the mtn and won't go any further. Very cool to see.
Once up near 6,000 feet we found some snow. This is pretty rare for this area. It really never gets quite cold enough to snow here. As you can see it melted faster than we could have imagined.
Video clip of Snow
Our lunch spot at 6,700 feet.
After hitting the snow and eating lunch we started our decent. Along the way we had some fun on some side trails.
After about 6 hours of driving we completed the trail and came back to pavement where we proceeded to air up and head home.
After airing up and hitting the highway, Pete and I stopped for a hotdog and a beer. Great view of Lake Elsinore from up a top.
