Ortega Highway, linking Orange and Riverside counties, is picturesque — and dangerous
Mountainous Ortega Highway offers motorists picturesque views of the Cleveland National Forest’s canyons and scrub-covered peaks — and a winding route that poses constant challenges and is home, too often, to death.
For the entire route, which ultimately courses for more than 110 miles, all the way from San Juan Capistrano to Palm Springs, Ortega Highway is among the deadliest stretches in Southern California. John Covington, 62, a longtime biker from Fullerton who runs a pool-cleaning business, rides along Ortega Highway near Lake Elsinore on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2022. In motorcycle lingo they are called squids. There are different theories on how the term was born, but to John Covington, a longtime biker from Fullerton who runs a pool-cleaning business, a squid is an experienced rider who drives dangerously, or a very inexperienced one. They are the ones who court danger most, the 62-year-old says.
From San Juan Capistrano to the City of Lake Elsinore alone, there were 54 fatal crashes, the data shows. Of those, 17 were head-on when a vehicle drifted over the centerline.The heart of the route where the Ortega Highway now lies was once an old passage for Native Americans living in the area, then later stagecoaches trying to reach the coast.
From his eastbound side of Ortega, the second curve requires bikers to lean into a right turn for more than 1,500 feet before the highway finally spits them out. But then, immediately — they’re faced with a quick curve back to the left. “This highway will swallow you up,” she said. “Google takes them up here, but once they get here, they’re like, ‘Where am I?’”Going east, after miles and miles of twists through the rugged, forested valleys of the Cleveland National Forest, the route emerges from the mountains thousands of feet up and drivers are treated to an expansive view of the City of Lake Elsinore and beyond, before descending in a wide loop to Grand Avenue below.
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