Mulholland Highway (The Snake)

Driving

by Plot Along: Pacific

"The Snake" is the twisty stretch of Mulholland Highway in the Santa Monica Mountains, just inland from Malibu, where the road coils through a tight run of S-curves between Kanan Road and the Rock Store. The Rock Store is the center of it, a stone-walled roadhouse that's been a motorcyclists' hangout since the 1970s, where racers, celebrities, and weekend riders have parked their bikes for decades and photographers line the curves shooting the action.

Unlike the dead-straight Mulholland Drive over the city, this western run of Mulholland Highway is rural canyon country: oak-shaded curves, film-ranch history (Paramount Ranch's Western Town and the Malibu Creek M*A*S*H site sit just off it), and almost no traffic lights for miles.

Fully paved and open year-round. The surface is patched and the curves are blind, so it rewards a careful line over speed, and you'll share it with sportbikes every weekend.

Learn more: en.wikipedia.org

Mulholland Bridge
A concrete-arch span carrying Mulholland Highway over Las Virgenes Creek, where the road comes out of the canyons near Calabasas. The eastern start of the drive.
Paramount Ranch
A historic movie ranch just off Mulholland on Cornell Road, where the Western Town set stood in for the Old West in many films and TV shows. A short, scenic detour off the highway.
The Rock Store
The stone-walled roadhouse that's been the center of the Mulholland motorcycle world since the 1970s. Bikes park three deep on weekends, celebrity riders show up, and photographers work the curves just up the road. The Snake's tight S-bends are right outside.
Malibu Cafe
A rustic roadhouse in the oak canyons at the western end of the run, near Mulholland Highway and Cornell Road. A quieter counterpoint to the Rock Store scene, and the finish after the Snake's curves.

Mulholland Bridge

Paramount Ranch

The Rock Store

Malibu Cafe