Highlights: Highway 36 • Fortuna • Highway 36 • Platina Rd • Gas Point Rd • Highway A17 • Wildcat Rd • Manton Rd • Lanes Valley Rd • Highway 36 • Lassen NP • Chester • Highway 36 • Highway 32 

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Ever have a little itch in the back of your head. A little tickle in the corners of your brain. What if. Every rider knows NorCal's Highway 36 is the center of the motorcyclist's cosmic universe. To the point of being a destination riders are willing to travel multi-state to ride and experience. What if we planned an entire Pashnit Motorcycle Tour around this road? Endless curve.  

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The Thirty-Six...

 

Highway 36 needs little introduction to most California riders, but it might, so here goes...

Generally recognized as the best motorcycle road in California—and possibly the entire West Coast—this bucket-list route serves up a mind-bending 1,811 curves across 140 miles of pure, unadulterated sport-touring bliss.

Our multi-day Pashnit Tour itinerary focuses entirely on Highway 36 as a destination. We'll approach the road from east to west, starting in Red Bluff. Before the tires even warm up, we pull over at the western city limits for the ultimate roadside photo-op with "The Sign."

While Caltrans recently relocated it ten miles west to read "Hill Curves Next 130 Miles," it remains the holy grail of asphalt warning markers and a pilgrimage for riders to get their picture with this sign.

When you ride eastbound, you blow by "The Sign" not even noticing it's there. However, westbound it smacks you upside the head and says, "Is this the coolest thing ever or what?!" Yes, yes it is. You have to get a picture of your bike with the sign.

Once the clutches drop, Highway 36 unfolds like an epic three-chapter novel...

Chapter I: The Roller Coaster 

The first portion headed westbound out of Red Bluff involves excellent pavement. But it's more than that. The road hugs the terrain. Roller-coaster style.

Nobody bothered to bring the bulldozer when they created this first section. Instead, it was simply graded smooth, and the road crew called it a day. The benefit is this terrain is like no other road in all of California.

The road rises and falls over low hills, then it snakes around, straightens out, then snakes around again. At first adhering to the contours of Dibble Creek, then beginning to gain elevation. A couple of straights, a meadow, cows grazing alongside the road—there is a rhythm here.

No mountain ranges yet, but you'll be able to see them getting closer on the horizon as this hilly terrain begins to close in around you. Then, popping over the next hill, there it is—an entire mountain range, a line in the sand as it were.

Highway 36 falls into Goldsborough Gulch towards Beegum Creek, then springs out through a series of thrilling 270-degree corners climbing up to the top of the range 1,000 feet in elevation to the tiny community of Platina.

Platina began life as Noble's Station in 1902, established as a stage stop on the wagon road between Red Bluff and Hayfork. In the 1920s, prospectors discovered platinum in nearby Beegum Creek, and the community gradually adopted the name Platina. The post office officially became Platina in 1921. For decades through the 1990s and early 2000s, there was gas, snacks, and a place to stretch your legs.

To the south of Platina a short distance, is an unlikely place for a monastery. The Saint Herman of Alaska Monastery, one of the most well-known Orthodox Christian monasteries in North America, sits on 80 acres several miles south of Platina. It was intentionally established in such an isolated location because its founders were seeking a life of prayer, contemplation, and simplicity away from cities and distractions.

 

The monastery, interestingly, is known for publishing. The monks produce a magazine, translate early Christian writings, and translate existing books into numerous languages. Hidden in the forests just south of Platina, it's a peaceful destination that contrasts sharply with the endless sweepers and mountain curves nearby.

 

Few riders expect to find an internationally known Orthodox monastery in one of the most remote corners of Northern California, yet it has drawn pilgrims from around the world for more than half a century.

Chapter II: Entering the Wilderness 
 

West of Platina, the terrain shifts dramatically. The low valley oak groves give way to towering pines, snow covered peaks, and smooth mountain curves. This second chapter is all about elevation and isolation. The road climbs & curves, treating our riding group to spectacular, sweepers that scale the center ranges. Glance north in the distance during springtime and you'll see the snow covered peaks of the Trinity Alps in the distance to the north. 

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In the center of Chapter II is the community of Wildwood. Twenty-plus years ago a local motorcycle enthusiast attempted to build a motorcycle cafe full of memorabilia and an attached restaurant for bikers and travelers alike. The cafe burnt down shortly thereafter and was never rebuilt even though the foundation of the building remains. In present day, a small coffee shack serves up coffee, and more importantly, ice cream, making it a required stop for any Pashnit Tour group with any mention of ice cream.

 

Wildwood is also the start point of Wildwood Rd, a shortcut north to Hayfork Pass, flowing past a massive limestone natural bridge that's easy to miss. There's tiny sign that reads, "Natural Bridge" and an arrow that points westward up a dirt road. The natural bridge is 1 mile up a dirt road and be sure to stay left at the 'Y'.

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After 67 miles of non-stop twisties, the midpoint of Highway 36 is the massive intersection we call, "The Triangle." Highway 3 heads north up to Hayfork and then over the wild undulating ride of Hayfork Pass. Highway 3 actually runs northward over two mountain summits and is one of the longest north-south mountain roads in the state stretching for 150 miles of curves. 

 

It's worth mentioning that Hayfork Pass is likely one of the best motorcycle roads in Northern California. Not too long, not too short, endless twisties, knee drag corners, and minimal traffic. Be sure and read the write-up for this super-fun road.

 

We'll ride Hayfork Pass in August.

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Last time our Pashnit group assailed Highway 36, we rode the first 76 miles to 'The Triangle' and passed just three other vehicles. Where can you do that? That means we carved 900 corners and passed three vehicles. 

 

Some regard the South Fork Mountain Summit as the mid-point of the ride, but it's not. The flat summit is 85 miles from where we started in Red Bluff, but this is where the ride changes gears for the next chapter.

Chapter III: The Van Duzen Flow

The final chapter plunges us down into the dense, moisture-rich forests of the Coast Range that borders the Pacific Ocean. Paralleling portions of the Van Duzen River, the tarmac transitions off the summit to Dinsmore through a tight, technical canopy ride plunging into the redwood forest flowing past Forest Rd 1.

Here, the curves become rapid-fire, flanked by ancient, 300-foot redwood giants positioned inches from the asphalt edge. The temperature drops, the air turns crisp, the pavement is brand new, and the S-curve rhythm becomes hypnotic until the road finally deposits us out near the Pacific Ocean outside Fortuna, our lunch stop for the day.

Guess what happens after a midday break in Fortuna? We're going to ride Highway 36 back the other direction. Wait, what?! Might want to read that last sentence a second time.

Who does that? Nobody does that.

Is it even possible to ride 3,600 curves in one day? We're going to try. Our entire day is all about riding Highway 36 both directions.
 

Eastbound and down...

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Locals to this road are quick to respond, "Hey, wait, there's a lot more to Highway 36." And... it doesn't even start in Red Bluff, and they're right.

Highway 36 stretches nearly across the entire state, past Susanville, and even touches base with Highway 395. But the character of the eastern half of Highway 36 is a completely different animal, flowing across the southern edge of the Cascade Range and into the high-desert regions of Eastern California. Most of this portion is even long straights.

But the eastern half of Highway 36 does have something special that no road in California has- an active volcano. Last erupting a mere 100 years ago between 1915–1917, it's not classified as dormant because Mount Lassen has erupted in relatively recent geologic time, plus it remains part of an active volcanic system.

Mount Lassen is part of the larger Lassen Volcanic Center, one of the most active volcanic regions in the Cascade Range. We're going to ride right past it. And there's so much snow during springtime, we'll make it up to the visitor center (which is even sometimes buried this time of year) as far as we can go up the mountain side in spring.

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Mount Lassen...

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Our mountain receives its name from the Maidu name for Lassen Peak, which means "Snow Mountain." The interior of the visitor center resembles a small museum, with multiple interpretive displays of area history and geologic presentation of the volcanism beneath your feet. Even in winter, Highway 89 is typically plowed to the south visitor center. Out behind the center is a broad patio with an expansive view of the mountain, worthy of a national park.

This region around Mount Lassen is actually a grouping of 30 volcanic peaks across a large square area. Mount Lassen is considered the largest lava dome on Earth and is the largest of the 30 peaks, said to have formed 27,000 years ago.

Lassen Peak produced a dramatic eruption in 1915 visible for many miles, as Mount Lassen can easily be seen from the Central Valley and even from Bay Area peaks like Mount Diablo and Mount Umunhum on a clear day.

The 1915 eruption spread ash as far as 200 miles to the east. It was the last eruption to occur in the Cascade Range until Mount St. Helens in 1980. Large eruptions are said to occur at intervals of every 10,000 years, the last large eruption measured at 1,100 years ago at Chaos Crags. Meet us back here in 9,000 years.

 

Whether you come for the legendary 1,811 curves between Red Bluff and Fortuna, the remote solitude of Platina and the Trinity wilderness, or the raw volcanic history anchored by Mount Lassen on the eastern flank, Highway 36 is far more than just a stretch of asphalt—it is a rite-of-passage pilgrimage for every motorcyclist. Blending technical roller-coaster terrain, ancient redwood canopy runs, and breathtaking mountain vistas into a single epic day of riding, it easily earns its reputation as the undisputed crown jewel of California Motorcycle Roads.