Highway 33: Ojai to Ventucopa

Highway 33 north of Ojai is the Jacinto Reyes Scenic Byway, a national forest scenic byway and a state scenic highway, and it crosses the whole of Los Padres National Forest on its way to the Cuyama Valley. The old name is the Maricopa Highway; the Reyes family, ranchers on the Cuyama side, did much of the work of mapping its route to the coast.

From the Ojai Y the highway heads into Wheeler Gorge, where it passes through three short tunnels in a narrow canyon of seeping cliffs with ferns and mosses. Beyond, it climbs a long run of tight bends past the Rose Valley turnoff and Sespe Gorge, where climbers work the rock walls, to Pine Mountain Summit at 5,160 feet, the saddle between the Sespe and Cuyama drainages. On the far side the road drops into dry, open country toward Ventucopa in the Cuyama Valley.

It's driven north from Ojai, the end nearer Ventura and Los Angeles, so the long climb to the summit comes first.