If you’ve been planning a run up Angeles Crest Highway, check the map before you load the car. A roughly 30-mile stretch of State Route 2, from 3.3 miles east of Newcomb’s Ranch all the way to Big Pines Highway, has been closed since Christmas week 2025, and as of this writing there’s still no reopening date. This isn’t a new problem for SR-2, but it’s the road’s worst stretch of bad luck in years.
What’s actually closed right now
Caltrans shut the highway down after a series of Christmas week storms tore through the San Gabriel Mountains, washing out sections of roadbed and triggering slides across the corridor. A Caltrans spokesperson described the closure as indefinite, covering the section from Newcomb’s Ranch to Big Pines Highway, roughly 30 miles of the route’s 66-mile total length. Some of the damage is bad enough that crews still can’t safely reach every affected site, which has made it hard for Caltrans to even finish assessing the full scope of repairs needed, let alone commit to a timeline. The repair estimate has climbed to roughly $16.8 million and is expected to keep growing.
Practically, that means the popular high-country stretch, the section that runs past Islip Saddle, Vincent Gulch, and up toward the higher elevations near Wrightwood, is off limits. Trailheads that depend on that stretch for access, along with some of the routes into the ski areas near Big Pines, are currently unreachable from this direction. The lower portion of SR-2, from the 210 freeway in La Cañada Flintridge up through Red Box and toward Newcomb’s Ranch, remains open, so a shorter out-and-back run through the lower canyon is still possible. It just won’t get you through to the other side.
Why this road keeps failing
Angeles Crest Highway has a rough history with weather, and it’s gotten rougher lately. The road first opened in pieces between 1929 and 1956, and a stretch through Islip Saddle and Vincent Gulch was closed for more than two years after the storms of winter 2022-2023 caused major washouts and slope failures. Caltrans spent about $7.9 million rebuilding that section, replacing drainage and guardrail systems, and finally reopened it in August 2025. Barely a month later, the Bridge Fire tore through the Angeles National Forest and damaged another stretch of the highway, requiring yet another round of emergency repairs before the full route reopened in July 2025.
That reopening lasted less than six months. The Christmas week 2025 storms hit terrain that was already weakened by back-to-back stormy winters and burn scars from recent fires, and the current closure is the result. Caltrans has been blunt about the underlying issue: steep terrain, fire-scarred slopes with less vegetation to hold soil in place, and increasingly severe winter storms are combining to make SR-2 one of the more failure-prone state highways in Southern California, even by mountain-road standards.
What this means if you were planning a drive
For now, treat the upper stretch of Angeles Crest Highway as unavailable for trip planning. Caltrans has offered no target reopening date, and given the two-plus years it took to fully repair the 2022-2023 damage, this closure is worth assuming will run long. If you want a comparable high-elevation SoCal drive in the meantime, the lower canyon section out of La Cañada Flintridge is still open and worth a shorter run on its own. For a full-length mountain road trip, this isn’t the season for it. We’ll update this piece when Caltrans has real news.