Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Driving time ?

HI I plan to drive Friday afternoon from Oxnard to Pala I think it will rain, about how long will it take. Thanks Doug

My guess is 3 1/2 hrs without rain. (No forecast for rain.) Add a 1/2 hour for rain. Friday late afternoon traffic in the LA area is the worst of the week. Best to leave as early as possible. Just my best guess.

I agree with Bob K. 3 ½ hours maybe more.

You will be heading into the eye of the storm as far as LA Traffic is concerned.

Google traffic directions says the following about Oxnard to Pala:

“157 mi – about 2 hours 46 mins - up to 6 hours 10 mins in traffic”

At least they don’t sugar coat it.

The 91 freeway is usually pretty open from the 5 freeway until Anaheim Hills and the 15 South is usually open as well.

Even on a good day the 91 freeway will take 45 minutes to an hour or more to go about 8 miles from Anaheim Hills to Corona, unless you have fast pass. That is where your 2 3/4 hour drive turns into a 3 ½ hour drive.

One thought is to go out the 210 freeway east to the 15 freeway south and avoid LA and the 91 freeway. It is more miles but less stop and go traffic and maybe less stress.

Doug, Avoid the 91 Freeway thru LA and Orange County at all costs on a Friday late afternoon, early evening. I work in Corona and come the 91 West to get home every Friday night. The traffic going West is a breeze, going east is bumper to bumper for hours on end. As suggested by the other person, take the 101 Freeway South to the 405 North (yes go North for ten miles) and catch the 118/210 Freeway going East towards Pasadena, take that all the way to the 15 Freeway South, you will have a slight slowdown at the 91/15 interchange but if you leave before noon, you will miss the bulk of the bad traffic, unless there's an accident. Once you get in the Lake Elsinore area it's starts to move faster. Good Luck.

Doug,
I have driven the route to Corona/Ontario enough times over the years and about 20% of the time I take side detours based on special activity/reported accidents. You definitely want to avoid the 91 freeway and downtown LA. Although the 210 freeway is better, it can still get jammed in Pasadena where the 210 merges with the 134 freeway (about 8 lanes crunch together). It can be slow all the way to to Glendora/San Dimas (where a lot of traffic heads south on the 57 freeway). It all depends on what time of the day you leave.

As for getting on the 210 freeway from the 118 freeway, the 405 freeway can get jammed as well in heavy traffic. As an alternative, you can pick up Route 118 from the 101 freeway by heading north on Santa Clara Ave. Avoid the 23 freeway because of construction. Another bypass route would be to take Route 126 to the 5 freeway.

Oh Doug, you brave man! Pack a lunch!
I am a flight attendant who drives from LAX home to both east OC (the Santa Ana Mountains) and Borrego Springs.
(I am Susan, the woman you met the week of the 11th of September-I showed you the pictures of my mother from 1970.)
I see that Mapquest advises the use of the 210, the 91 and then the 15. I would avoid all of those freeways! No one seems to live in OC anymore...therefore the above mentioned freeways are all bumper to bumper.
It might not look good to Mapquest, but I would take the 134 East to the 5 South all the way to 76 East. The 76 might be a little bit tedious, but I think it beats the bumper view of the 15 South. Plus, just think of all the wonderful things you will get to see driving the 5! The beautiful skyline of downtown LA, Disneyland, and the last part of undeveloped Southern California coastline (Camp Pendleton). You will also pass the Mission San Luis Rey on the 76.
Enjoy your drive!

Doug:

To be safe, I'd allow for 4 hours, although you didn't mention what time of the afternoon you're heading down. This is one of the most important variables. If early afternoon (i.e., leave Oxnard by 1:00), you should avoid the bad stuff on any of the various routes you're considering, and the 3 1/2 - 4 hour estimate holds.

If leaving any later than that, you're probably looking at 4 1/2 hours, minimum. I'd suggest the 101 (south) to the 23 (north, actually) which hooks up with the 118. The 118 (east) hooks up with the 210 (east), which will take you all the way out to the 15. Once on the 15 south, you should be in good shape.

Yes, the 210 can get crowded in Pasadena, but at that time of a Friday afternoon you'll be encountering traffic on any route, and in order to get "east", you'll need to take either the 210, the 10, the 60, or the 5. In my experience, the 210 is the lesser of many evils. Don't even consider the 405. And, unless things have changed in the last week or so, stay away from the 5, as it's only 3-lanes for much of your ride, and there's significant construction going on just past the east side of the downtown area all the way down to close to Disneyland.

And there shouldn't be any rain this Friday.

Good luck ... and give thanks that you only have to deal with our traffic on rare occasions!

BruinDave

And now someone told me it snows by that pass between Oxnard and LA, will I need those tire chains? Up here everyone has a sign out selling chians but most people just wait until they are stopped at the inspection station and get turned around. I wou;d also like to avoid the house in the road. Thanks Doug

There is never any snow between Oxnard and LA. as far as the house, Cal Trans took over to move the house, poor guy tried to save a buck and now it will be about three times the cost.

I agree with BuinDave on the route. This is really just a tough time to be driving, but this route maximizes going the "right" way, and the lesser of the evils, at least if you don't have satellite communication with the caltrans computers, to avoid the tie-ups.

You DO NOT want to leave later than 1pm, and even that is pushing it. Fridays are just miserable. I'd figure 4 hours, but for every hour after 1pm, add an hour to the travel time.

http://traffic.tann.net/

Oh, and snow is never an issue on that pass. They might get an inch every 20 years or so, but it melts in a minute.

Doug,
The Conejo Grade is less than 1000 feet in elevation and the Calabasas Grade (going from Thousand Oaks into LA) is not any worse. It does not snow in either location. Going south on Route 14 the most vulnerable location is Escondido Summit at just over 3000 feet elevation. That is lower than Lone Pine.

Doug,

I can't believe you're driving all that way to see Kenny G.You don't strike me as a "Kenny G" kind of guy.You won't see any snow down here.
Thor

... but it might melt by Friday. Good luck.

Poetics and Linguistics Association - www.pala.ac.uk

I had to look it up... I think you'd be better off heading up and getting a flight out of Reno. Why drive down towards L.A.?

OK seems like the drive would be like planning a Whitney trip when the conditioms are changing , your comments were great. Thanks Doug

I have often wondered the same thing - but since my truck can no longer drive south anymore - I figure it's irrelevant

Well, it's now Friday morning, 10:45 AM PDT along Doug's route and it's raining! The weather report on my computer says it isn't raining. Hmmmmm. Very peculiar. Doug wouldn't happen to be one of those people in a Harry Potter book would he?

holy crap I just wet myself laughing! nice photo