Yesterday, I went skiing at Mountain High in Wrightwood, CA.  It was a blast!  We drove up there in less than two hours without the tiniest bit of traffic.  As you know, the absence of traffic is nearly a miracle for LA. That's the good part and it was not a small part of the story.

The trouble began the very moment we headed for home - we could not exit the parking lot due to a traffic back up.  This was no small back up, either.  It was absolutely EPIC in its scale!  Let me explain.

In Wrightwood, as in many small towns, there is a STOP sign at their major cross roads.  The thing is, there were thousands of cars trying to leave, all at more or less the same time.  That stop sign caused the traffic to back up all the way into the parking lot at Mountain High, as each car had to slow to a stop, then accelerate again.

A little farther down the mountain, the road goes from two lanes to one.  Everyone has to slow down again and merge left.  Now, that was bad enough but almost immediately thereafter there is a fairly large road that merges onto the now single-lane mountain road with more slowing.

The net effect of these roads was a four mile back up from the parking lot to the stop sign in Wrightwood.  It took 1.5 hours to reach the stop sign.  That was followed by another 1.5 hour delay for the merging traffic.  It was not snowing or raining, so weather was not the cause.  There were no accidents or road closures causing any of this.

All told, it took well over 3 hours to traverse the 20 miles from Mountain High to the 15 Freeway.

I know, first-world problems, yaddah-yaddah.

The skiing was great.  We had a lot of time together in the car to talk and goof around.

Next time I go, I am taking a drill driver with me.  On the way up to the resort, I am going to unscrew that damned stop sign and steal it.  That way, there'll be no hassle getting thru town on the way down.

This was Hwy 2 to Hwy 138 to get to I-15.

Next time, if the roads are open, I will use "the back way".   What road do you use to go up to the resort, N4?

Looking at Google Earth, it appears major upgrades have been done to Pearblossom Hwy - two lanes each way plus a two way left turn lane down the middle.

Learned this trick in the early 2000s when I was up there twice a week to ride. There’s a back way around the traffic.

When you leave Mt. High make a right onto Sheep Creek Dr. from Highway 2. Make a left when Sheep Creek Dr. dead ends, that road goes around and will take you to the 138 and from there you can get on the 15. It’s longer mileage, but a HUGE time saver in situations like this.

I don’t remember the name of the road you’ll turn on to get to the 138 and I have no idea if it gets plowed. Also the last time I was up there was probably 2006, so things may have changed. I’m sure Google Maps could tell you.

ETA: Not sure if this is the “back way” you guys were talking about. But we used it all the time with no issues.

Lone Pine Canyon can get closed up during snow conditions.  And it's "broken" south of the 2 due to provisions to deal with floods/rockslides, so Sheep Creek is the best access to it.  Highway 2 is open all the way from La Canada to Big Pine, notwithstanding winter closures.  My impression is Highway 39 has finally been re-opened all the way through from Azusa to Angeles Crest again after many, many years of closure.  I would guess there are winter closures and I haven't tried in good weather yet.  Probably want to call ahead.  I've noticed none of Sigalert, CHP nor CalTrans sites are fully timely or accurate when dealing with snow closures.  Big Pines Highway, N4, to Valyermo, I'd guess could be closed in winter and not even remotely convenient as an alternative route depending on where you are heading to/from.