Orange County driving roads
8 roads and 84 mapped miles. Pick a road to see its route, character and access notes.
Santiago Canyon and Live Oak–Trabuco are useful starting points for an Orange County canyon drive. Ortega is a longer mountain crossing, while the coastal highway and Laguna Canyon have a different road character. Compare the selected sections and follow the individual pages for current-access sources.
Choose a road
- Carbon Canyon Road · SR 142A short crossing of the Chino Hills on SR 142, between Brea and Chino Hills Parkway in northern Orange County.
- Laguna Canyon Road · SR 133A canyon approach into Laguna Beach, continuing along Broadway Street to PCH. Expect urban junctions and busier sections near the coast.
- Live Oak / Trabuco CanyonThe shaded county-road corridor from Santiago Canyon Road through Live Oak and the paved part of Trabuco Canyon Road toward Plano Trabuco.
- Modjeska Grade RoadA short, narrow grade off Santiago Canyon Road that climbs over a ridge and drops into Modjeska Canyon, described locally as the tightest couple of miles in Orange County.
- Ortega Highway · SR 74The SR 74 crossing of the Santa Ana Mountains, from San Juan Capistrano over the range toward Lake Elsinore.
- Pacific Coast Highway · Orange CountyThe Orange County coast run from Newport Beach through Laguna Beach to Dana Point — scenic and urban rather than technical.
- Santiago Canyon RoadA comparatively open inland run through the Santa Ana foothills, from the Jamboree and Chapman transition south to Live Oak Canyon Road.
- Silverado Canyon RoadA quiet village-and-canyon spur inland from Santiago Canyon. The selected public-road trace stops before the forest-road continuation.