A Unique Tourist Attraction In LA’s High Desert
When you drive a certain road in Lancaster, CA, is truly is music to your ears.
In fact, it’s called the Musical Road and it actually plays a song when you drive over it. No kidding!
There are grooves, not unlike but a lot smoother than rumble strips on a highway. They are spaced just so that when the tires go over them at 55 mph, they make music. The drive takes 20 seconds. The song it “plays” is the finale of the “William Tell Overture.”
(Well what did you expect, Snoop Dog!?)
When you approach, roll up the windows and turn off your radio or music player. Try not to talk; the song is loud enough to easily be heard in the car but people talking loudly will drown out the sound.
The strips are smooth and not at all bumpy and it works on any vehicle.
The Musical Road is located off the 14 freeway at Ave. G, between 30th and 40th streets. It’s about a five-minute drive from the freeway and two signs indicate when you are approaching it. It is in the left-hand lane of the two-lane road.
The road was put in by Honda Motor Company for a commercial. It is actually perfectly “tuned” to the Civic.
The original road was located downtown but the constant buzz, so to speak, of people driving over it close to a residential area caused the city of Lancaster to move it to a remote location.
And it’s remote, all right, in the middle of nothing around it. Except in March when 100,000 people go the William J Fox airport for the L.A. County Air Show (Oct. 23-25 in 2021).
Directions: Take the 14 freeway and exit at Ave. 6. Go west until you see the signs for the Musical Road. Be in the left-hand lane. Drive the Musical Road, then U-turn and get back on the 14 freeway.
Lancaster is located 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Take the 405 or 5 north to the 14 freeway into Lancaster.
Musical Road Map
• Ave. G between 30th and 40th Streets
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