New Paving on Griffith Park’s Vista del Valle

A ride up to the view at Griffith Park’s helipad is normally a special treat, but today my trip got extra credit.

The access roads around the park provide cyclists a great getaway from vehicular traffic, but the downside has always been the shoddy conditions.

Every roadie dreams of smooth pavement, but over the years I’ve grown to embrace the fun dirt brings to gravel bikes.

This morning coming up from the Commonwealth entrance, things looked their normal hacked up self until I neared the big tank where you get a good overview of I-5 gridlock.

Pavement. Smooth chocolatey pavement!

It was hard to accept and at first I thought it was going to be a small patch, but it just kept on going.

A hiker emerging from the Upper Beacon Trail couldn’t believe his eyes either.

Around the hairpin turn, I was surprised to see that the paving went past the DWP construction all the way to the helipad and even a little by there to the Riverside Trail.

All in all, the stretch is roughly a half of a mile, but it does fix some of the worst sections of broken up pavement along this road.

Thanks to the Department of Recreation & Parks who I imagine had a hand on this:

 

The start.

 

…so smooth….

 

Looking back before the hairpin.

 

I would have thought the paving would have ended near here by the construction.

 

Ahhh….the helipad.

 

The end.