Last August, the full length of Angeles Crest Highway reopened for the first time in years, allowing hikers, campers, classic car drivers and others full access to the east-west road that cuts through the center of Angeles National Forest. When not closed for repairs, the famous mountain road takes travelers from just north of Los Angeles all the way out to the Cajon Pass, which connects California’s high desert with the Inland Empire below.
It took years for Caltrans to repair damage from the “relentless storms” in the winter of 2022-2023, which collapsed parts of the roadway and caused rockslides, according to Caltrans.
But Angelenos didn’t have much time to enjoy the entire expanse of the national forest’s more than 700,000 acres, much of which is connected directly to the troubled road. Just a few months later, another winter storm rolled in, and a large chunk in the middle of the 66-mile mountain highway closed again. “ANGELES CREST HIGHWAY IS DESTROYED,” wrote one Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department official on Instagram at the time…