Washed-Out Highway May Be Washed Up : Transportation: Officials want to permanently close stretch of California 39 near Crystal Lake that has been blocked by boulders since 1978.

For years, northbound travelers on California 39 winding into the heart of the Angeles National Forest have been stopped abruptly by boulders blocking the road near Crystal Lake.

Since a 1978 rainstorm washed out 500 feet of asphalt and tossed rocks onto the highway, a 4.4-mile stretch of roadway has been closed. In the meantime, state transportation officials have been unwilling to spend the estimated $20 million needed to reopen the San Gabriel Valley’s central link to the forest and the Angeles Crest Highway.

Now Caltrans and U.S. Forest Service officials want to make the road closing official, taking the unprecedented step of abandoning a part of California 39.

The mile-high section of road with its breathtaking chaparral views 8 1/2 miles north of Azusa would be given over forever to hikers, mountain bikers and the forest’s estimated 700 big horn sheep.

Other state roads have been closed temporarily before, but they have always been repaired and reopened at some point, said Wallace J. Rothbart, chief of Caltrans’ project studies branch for Los Angeles and Ventura counties, as he led a tour of the road Wednesday.

Even the closing won’t be cheap: officials estimate that it will cost several million dollars to remove barriers and shore up the road so it doesn’t crumble into adjacent Bear Creek Canyon.

Although California 39, finished in 1961, once provided easy access to ski resorts at Mt. Waterman and Kratka Ridge and was a scenic route to Wrightwood, Caltrans officials say they have heard no complaints about the closing.

“There has been no pressure one way or the other from environmental groups or business interests to reopen the road,” said Don Stikkers, district ranger of the Forest Service’s Mt. Baldy District. “We just feel it . . . needs to get resolved.”

Caltrans will hold a hearing on the closure next Thursday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Glendora Library.

Stikkers said considerations include how a permanent closure would affect deer, bear, the big horn sheep whose migratory path includes the roadway and even trout that swim in Bear Creek Canyon.

So far, Caltrans has maintained culverts along the closed part and even cleared small rockslides. “It always has been a maintenance headache,” Rothbart said.