STREET WISE: / New Directions : A Back-Door Route Worth The Trip Around

Half of Wynola Road’s beauty lies in getting there.

Twenty miles from the nearest traffic signal, Kentucky Fried Chicken or Circle K, the trip to the winding 2-mile strip that creeps into the back door of Julian is different things to different drivers.

For those in low-slung sports cars whose names end in “GT” or “NSX,” the way to Wynola Road offers curves suited to listening to high-powered music and generating large G-forces, the kind of place that seems destined to appear on a television commercial. (Wynola Road itself has more than two dozen sharp turns.)

For the more casual driver, it is the nature between suburbia and Wynola Road that is most stunning. The cavernous valley floors and clear air make you forget the tract homes and strip malls left behind. The spring grass reminds urbanites of what green really is.

Fruit stands boasting strawberries, oranges and avocados and frequent rest stops provide plenty of excuses to get out of the car and simply look around.

Bring a bag of apples if you want to feed the horses along the way.

To get to Wynola Road, take California 78 past, well, past everything. And take a left at Tom’s Chicken Shack, just outside of Julian. Perhaps one of Wynola’s greatest assets is that you don’t have to pass Julian’s new Dairy Queen.

You’ll know you’re on Wynola because, all of a sudden, you’re not sharing the road with anyone anymore. It is devoid of the traffic generally found en route to the back country. Sensible people on their way to Julian take the sensible route of following California 78.

But once past the Wynola Bible Conference, the sensibility of this back door becomes clear: This is why people trek to Julian.

Serenity so stark that it almost ceases to be tranquil. You wonder why people live in prefab houses along asphalt roads squeezed together like eggs on a flat when there are woods and ponds and green such as these.

Then you spot the stream that wends its way through a hidden valley and don’t trouble yourself with thoughts of anything else.

Don’t let yourself get too lost in it all, though. Wynola Road is all too brief. Before you know it, it’s time to make the right at Farmer Road and get to Julian proper.