Onion Valley Road
Independence / Owens Valley · near Independence · Eastern Sierra
Road Cycling
At a glance
- Distance
- long
- Best season
- Late spring–fall; upper road snow-affected in winter
What is here
- Scenery
- mountain
- Amenities
- A mile of vertical in one climb · Staggering Owens Valley & Sierra views · Quiet, dramatic dead-end road · A bucket-list monster climb
- Best for
- One of America's biggest paved climbs
- Features
- Among the biggest climbs in the US · A mile of gain from the valley floor · Dramatic Eastern Sierra escarpment · Huge Owens Valley panoramas
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Relentless sustained gradient; high altitude · Desert heat below, cold & thin air up top · Remote — no services; carry everything · Steep descent demands strong braking
- Beginner friendly
- No
Road Cycling detail
- Ride types
- climb
- Road
- quiet
- Climbing
- 5
- Ride notes
- One of the biggest paved climbs in the United States — straight up the Eastern Sierra escarpment from Independence to the Onion Valley trailhead near 9,200 ft, gaining a mile of vertical in about 13 relentless miles with staggering Owens Valley views
- Stats note
- ~13 mi, ~5,000+ ft gain to ~9,200 ft; relentless escarpment climb
- Seasonal
- Yes
- Intl tip
- One of the biggest paved climbs in the US — ~13 relentless miles from Independence straight up the Eastern Sierra escarpment to a ~9,200-ft trailhead, gaining a full mile of vertical, with staggering Owens Valley and White Mountain views. A quiet dead-end road with almost no traffic. Serious high country: desert heat below, thin cold air up top, no services, unrelenting gradient. Carry everything, pace the altitude, be sure of your brakes for the plunging descent. Upper road snow-affected in winter.
The guide
Onion Valley Road, rising from the tiny Owens Valley town of Independence straight up the Eastern Sierra escarpment to a trailh…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Onion Valley Road — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 36.77, -118.34