Topanga Canyon Loop — CA-27 + Old Topanga Road — Behind the Scenes

The Road

The request came in for CA-27 with Old Topanga Road. When I started researching, I discovered that these two roads together with Mulholland which I already drew form a loop. That's how the design approach came together: not two separate roads, but a system that makes more sense driven as one.

CA-27 is a main local artery connecting PCH to the San Fernando Valley. Old Topanga is quieter, residential, tucked away. Neither one screams epic driving road on paper. People live here. People commute here. And yet both roads are technical and tight in a way that earns your attention every single time. This is a design about everyday roads that are anything but ordinary.

The Elements

The Start — PCH and the Shore

The loop begins at the Pacific Coast Highway, and that felt like it needed to be honored in the design. The shoreline anchors the bottom of the composition, and the CA-27 route shield is wedged into the sand, a nod to California surf culture and the salt-air world you're leaving behind as you climb into the canyon. When you complete the loop and the Pacific comes back into view, it must feel like a reward. That reveal of the ocean informed the whole emotional arc of the design. You start at the shore, climb into something tight and technical, and the ocean is there waiting for you when you come back.

Big Rock and the Oak Canopy

I watched YouTube videos of both roads and did a series of virtual ride-alongs using Street View before I drew a single line. On Old Topanga Road, one piece of geography kept catching my attention, a large rock formation that I couldn't immediately identify. I traced it back on Google Maps and eventually found it through its connection to the Manzanita School. That's how I located Big Rock. Old photographs confirmed this. It's been an anchor of this road for a long time. It earned its place in the design. What struck me when comparing old and new photographs is that the rock formation itself seems virtually unchanged, yet somehow absolutely transformed by everything that has grown and changed around it. The road evolves, the community evolves, and Big Rock just watches.

The other defining feature of Old Topanga is the oak canopy. At certain stretches it's like driving through a living tunnel, coast live oaks arching overhead, diffused light, that enclosed feeling of a road that knows itself. I wanted that to be felt in the design as much as seen.

The San Fernando Valley and the Flying Pig

CA-27 has a different character than Old Topanga. It's still canyon, still chaparral and sagebrush and tight turns, but it connects somewhere. The San Fernando Valley is the destination, and the design needed to acknowledge that without letting a cityscape take over. The Warner towers appear in the background, those distinctive black buildings, quietly tucked into the composition. They're an anchor, not a billboard. They say valley without saying city.

And then there's the flying pig. While watching a drive video, the narrator mentioned a cafe with a flying pig while passing, and that was enough to send me down a research path. The Flying Pig of Topanga is a pink concrete sculpture with wings, created by local carpenter and artist Chris Budzin out of concrete and chicken wire. It a landmark beloved by the community symbolizing the bohemian and independent spirit of the area. That kind of place-specific lore is exactly what this project is about, so my version of the pig found its way into the design. It's not glaring so you have to look for it. That's the point. The people who know Topanga will find it. Everyone else may  just think it's a nice illustration. 

How It Comes Together

These are two distinct roads with a shared heartbeat. CA-27 carries you through open canyon with a valley waiting on the other side. Old Topanga pulls you deeper, under oak canopies and past rock formations that locals have been navigating by for generations. Together they form a loop that begins and ends at the Pacific, with the mountains doing all the storytelling in between. What makes this design different from the others in the collection is that it captures a community as much as a road. The flying pig, the Warner towers in the distance, the Big Rock that doesn't show up on most maps unless you know to look, these aren't just scenic details. They're the texture of a place where people actually live, and where, if you're paying attention, the driving is quietly excellent.

If you want to go deeper into each road individually, I drew two more designs in this series. One is dedicated to CA-27 Topanga Canyon Blvd and one to Old Topanga Road, each drilling into the distinct culture of its road.