Powerhouse Rd - Auberry, CA

Powerhouse Road is an easily missed canyon ride in the Central Sierra foothills, cutting a rugged north-south path from Auberry to North Fork, CA. For motorcyclists, this isn't just a point-A-to-point-B route—it’s a dramatic, technical plunge into the historic heart of California's early hydroelectric grid. This particular stretch of the San Joaquin River is packed with infrastructure; Kerckhoff, Redinger, Big Creek and the Mammoth Pool dams are all clustered within a short distance inside this deep canyon. And, all that mountain runoff flows into Millerton Lake held in check with the Friant Dam.

Leaving Auberry, the tarmac immediately drops your jaw as it dives straight into the San Joaquin River gorge. The descent is tight, steep, and unapologetic, throwing a dizzying barrage of narrow switchbacks and blind corners at your front tire. As your brakes and suspension get a thorough workout, the giant granite walls of the canyon rise up around you, eventually revealing the waters of Kerckhoff Reservoir down on the canyon floor. Crossing the historic river corridor, you ride directly past the massive iron penstocks of the early 1920s powerhouses that gave the road its name.

Once you clear Smalley Cove, the route immediately switches gears, transforming into an aggressive, tight, and rather goaty climb out of the gorge toward North Fork plus a name change to Road 222. By the time you top out and reach North Fork Rd just outside the tiny foothill community of North Fork, your tires are spent, your adrenaline is pumping, and you’ve just conquered another of the numerous rugged river canyon crossings in the Golden State.

Love the goat? At the bottom of the San Joaquin River canyon sits Redinger Lake Rd. This narrow paved ribbon tracks along the floor of the canyon, running upstream along the San Joaquin River to the Redinger Lake Dam before climbing out to connect back with Minarets Road just outside of North Fork. Redinger, Big Creek and the Mammoth Pool dams are all within a few miles upstream to explore.