Summit Scenic Overlook
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About this site
Located on State Highway 138 west of Summit Valley Road (part of the Rim of the World Scenic Byway). This unpaved overlook offers views of Cajon Pass, home to Interstate 15 and 4 railway lines, this location is popular with railroad fans. Do not venture near the cliff.
Open all year. Cajon Pass is a moderate-elevation mountain pass between the San Bernardino Mountains and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California in the United States. It was created by the movements of the San Andreas Fault.
The Mojave Desert pass provides an important economic link from the Greater San Bernardino Area, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, to Victor Valley, and northeast to Las Vegas. The California Southern Railroad, a subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, was the first railroad to use the Cajon Pass as a route through the mountains. The rail line through the pass was built in the early 1880s as part of a connection between the present day cities of Barstow and San Diego.
Today, the Union Pacific Railroad and BNSF Railway (the successor to the Santa Fe) use this pass to access Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Due to the high volume of trains, noteworthy scenery and easy access, it is a popular location for railfanning, and numerous photographs of trains on Cajon Pass appear in books and magazines about trains. The current Amtrak Chicago-Los Angeles Southwest Chief passenger train travels through the pass.
The Union Pacific Railroad operates and owns one track through the pass, on the previous Southern Pacific Railroad Palmdale cutoff, opened in 1967. The BNSF Railway had two tracks and began to operate a third main track in the summer of 2008. The railroads share track rights through the pass ever since the Union Pacific gained track rights on the Santa Fe portion negotiated under the original Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad.
S. Route 66 and I-15, roughly followed this route.
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Start the first trip hereCampground data provided by Recreation.gov ยท Updated Apr 2026
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