# Monitor Pass

Source page: https://carsonriverresorts.com/explore/monitor-pass

16 minutes · The aspen turn in early October

Highway 89 climbs out of the canyon to 8,314 feet and drops the other side into high desert. It was not finished until 1954, which makes it the youngest state-highway crossing of the range. In October the aspen along it turn, and each grove turns as one thing, because each grove is one thing.

## Each grove is one plant

The aspen along the top of this pass are not stands of individual trees. A
grove is a **single organism** — one root system underground, many trunks
above it, every trunk genetically identical to every other.

Which is why the color arrives in blocks. One hillside goes gold in a week
while the next is still green, and it is not the weather or the aspect
deciding: it is a different plant. When you see a hard edge between gold and
green running up a slope, you are looking at the boundary between two
individuals.

## When to drive it

**The first two weeks of October**, most years. That is the resort's own
calendar rather than a regional average, and it is the fortnight to plan a
drive around. The turn still moves with the season and with elevation: the
groves up high by Leviathan Peak go first, and the ones down toward Heenan
Lake follow.

The rest of the year the drive is worth it anyway, for a reason people do not
expect. You climb out of a river canyon through pine, top out at 8,314 feet,
and then descend the east side into **high desert** — sagebrush, long views
into Nevada, and the Antelope Valley opening below. Few roads change biome
that completely in eighteen miles.

## It closes, and it opens first

Monitor is gated every winter — at the Highway 4 junction on the west end and
at US-395 on the east. Caltrans decides, not the calendar.

**Since 2010 it has closed somewhere between the last week of November and
the last week of December, and reopened between the first week of April and
the first week of May.** In 2026 it opened on 5 March, which is early.

The useful comparison is with its neighbor: **Monitor almost always opens
weeks before Ebbetts.** In eight of the last ten seasons Monitor was open in
April while Highway 4 stayed shut into May or later. If you are here in
spring and want a pass, this is the one that is likely to be available.

Caltrans publishes live status on QuickMap, and the highway-number page takes
a plain "89".

## The climb

This is a serious piece of road on a bicycle, and it is the **Death Ride's
opening climb** — the first thing riders do after leaving Markleeville.

**From the Highway 4 junction, the west side runs about 8.2 miles and climbs
roughly 2,650 feet, averaging around 6%.** Two harder pitches sit in the
middle. One climb database ranks it among the ten most epic in California and
third in the whole Tahoe region.

**The east side, up from Highway 395, is harder still** — about 9.5 miles at
6.5%, and by that database's own difficulty index it is the toughest climb in
the region, ahead of the west side of its own pass.

**There is no shoulder on the west side.** Two independent sources say so,
and Caltrans's own cycling route description for this highway calls it narrow
and twisting with no shoulders, recommending it for experienced riders. One
climbing site describes a bike lane on the east side; the road's own
custodian does not. Ride it as though there is none.

And there is **no bike shop in this county on this side of the passes** — the
nearest is over Ebbetts and closed for half the year. Carry what you would
need to get yourself home.

## What else is up there

**Heenan Lake** sits below the road on the way up, open to catch-and-release
only in a short autumn season — [it has its own page now](/heenan-lake). **Leviathan Peak** stands above the aspen at
the top — and gives its name to the old sulfur mine on its flank, which
Anaconda worked to a half-million tons in the 1950s and which is a federal
Superfund site today.

The eighteen miles of highway over the top carry an official name most maps
do not print: the **Robert M. Jackson Memorial Highway**.

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Carson River Resort · 12399 Highway 89, Markleeville, CA 96120 · (530) 694-2229 · store open 8am to 6pm, every day.
Machine-readable facts, units and policies: https://carsonriverresorts.com/api/agent/index.json