Palomar Mountain + Mesa Grande — Behind the Scenes

Hi, I'm Martina — the artist behind every illustration in the Drive Collection. Each design is hand-drawn by me, built from research and a shared love of beautiful roads that my husband and I turned into artwork you can wear.

 

The Road

This one came in as a request through our website. I'd never driven Palomar Mountain, so I had to earn it through research. I pulled up Google Maps to orient myself along the route, dropped into Street View at different points to read the scenery, and watched YouTube videos of drives along Mesa Grande Road because I kept reading about how that section opens up into something expansive and almost unexpected. That's how I found Lake Henshaw, tucked into the open plateau at the end of the descent. I had to piece it all together like a puzzle before I could draw a single line.

 

The Elements

The Climb — S6 East Grade 

I wanted to capture the switchbacks of the S6 climb, so I studied aerial shots and used those top-down angles as the basis for the drawing. That perspective lets you feel the windiness of the road, but it also reveals something else. The vegetation changes as you climb, and from above that variation creates this almost patterned, textural effect across the mountain. It's different from just trees on a hillside. It has rhythm.

The Observatory

The Palomar Observatory was a must. I always look for a signature landmark that you could actually see from the road, something that earns its place in the design. However, the observatory goes beyond that. It's the reason the South Grade Road climb is nicknamed the Highway to the Stars, and once I knew that, I knew the design had to reach for the sky too. The Hale Telescope housed inside is the largest in the observatory and the one that discovered the Crab Nebula, so I made Taurus the constellation anchoring the upper sky, with star trails sweeping across the top of the design. It felt right that the road and the cosmos would share the same frame. There's a happy accident in the upper panels too. The speedometer and steering wheel sit alongside the constellations and star trails, and the shapes rhyme. Circles all the way up just like stars and planets. The instruments of the drive and the instruments of the universe occupying the same space. There's a vastness to the universe that never really ends, and I think a great drive carries that same feeling. You want the road to keep going, just like the stars above it.

The Tree — Jeffrey Pine 

Palomar Mountain is home to a mix of pine varieties, and as you climb the S6 South Grade the tall pines begin to appear roadside, marking the shift in elevation and environment. The Jeffrey Pine stood out as the right choice for the design. More than a species, it's a symbol of altitude. The air thins, the temperature drops, and the trees signal that you've arrived somewhere different from where you started.

The Animal — Bobcat 

I always include some wildlife. It rounds out the picture of a place and captures its environmental character. My first instinct was the California Condor, but when I started looking at photos, something felt off. It has a macabre quality that didn't match the energy I was going for. I kept coming back to the mountain cats that appear throughout California. There's something majestic about them. They're always photographed with this ponderous, powerful gaze. And power is part of driving too. There's a strength a bobcat symbolizes that felt right for a technical mountain road. When I learned bobcats are spotted in this area, it was settled. They may not be as common as deer, but even if we don't see the bobcat, the bobcat sees us. It's a spectator watching from its mountainous bleachers as you take on these turns with gusto.

The Destination — Mesa Grande + Lake Henshaw 

Mesa Grande is the reward for the climb. The route traces S6 up the South Grade, transitions to S7, and connects to Mesa Grande Road via a short stretch of Highway 76. As you move through that descent, Lake Henshaw appears in the open plateau below, visible from S7 before you even reach it. I added the reservoir to marry the two sections of the drive together. It's a scenic feature of the road in its own right, and it gives the design a sense of arrival. The journey has a beginning and an end.

 

How It Comes Together

From the first switchback on S6 to the open plateau of Mesa Grande, I wanted this design to tell the full story of the drive and not just a moment of it. The Observatory ties in the cosmic dimension of the mountain, the Jeffrey Pine marks the climb, the bobcat watches from the ridgeline, and Lake Henshaw signals that you've made it through. Every element belongs to this road specifically. Pull any one of them and you lose something true about Palomar.