Traveling through the hustle and bustle that is Santa Clarita along the busy four and sometimes six lanes that is Copper Hill Dr, we start out our Funday Monday by turning North onto the little two-lane San Francisquito Cyn Rd.
We round the first bend and immediately we find the pace has slowed way down and we’re driving a quiet winding road bordered with propertied mini-mansions and large equestrian estates.
We continue as the canyon narrows and the road quickly rises in elevation through sharp hairpin curves, one after the other. We find ourselves driving under a canopy of ancient oaks, sycamores, and towering cottonwood trees. Wow!
Having left Santa Clarita behind at an elevation of 1207 ft, we climb through the canyons until we finally level out at an elevation of 3228 ft in a long valley featuring several lakes including Lake Elizabeth and Lake Hughes, all formed by and marking the San Andreas Fault where it cuts a swath through Southern California
With California suffering through several years of drought, we find ourselves driving past a mostly dry Lake Elizabeth to our destination, the Rock Inn, located just across the road from Lake Hughes.
Built by Joel B. Hurd from locally quarried stone and completed 93 years ago in 1929, the Rock Inn started out as the Lake Hughes Trading Post. The two-story rock structure built with arched windows and doors and a large rock fireplace, housed the local general store, the post office, and a hotel.
Following World War II, business slowed and the hotel was closed and the Rock Inn was purchased and run by Adrian and Dolores Shrout.
In 1979, actor Paul Koslow took ownership and major renovations were made reinforcing the stone structures and remodeling the second floor into bedrooms for a bed and breakfast.
Today the Rock Inn features a restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner 7 days a week featuring American cuisine catering to locals, tourists and in particular, motorcycle enthusiasts who so enjoy the winding, curving mountain and canyon roads that lead to the beautiful mountain community of Lake Hughes.
It was so much fun to step back almost a century in time, surrounded by thick rock walls and heavy plank floors and have our Funday Monday lunch where so many have dined before, in such a beautiful and literally antique building surrounded by so much history.