An Optical Illusion Wrapped in a Joyride Legend
1054 E Loma Alta Dr, Altadena, CA 91001
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free. Public road.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved residential street
Equipment
Photos OK
East Loma Alta Drive sits in the residential hillside community of Altadena, in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains north of Pasadena. The road is accessible from the 210 freeway via Lake Avenue north, then East Altadena Drive, then Porter Avenue north to its terminus at East Loma Alta Drive.
The gravity hill at this location is a documented perceptual phenomenon. When a vehicle is stopped on the incline, shifted into neutral, and released, it appears to roll backward — uphill. Researchers studying gravity hills nationwide have attributed the effect to the curvature of the hillside interacting with the angle of surrounding trees, power lines, and structures in ways that establish a false horizontal reference. The brain, reading that false horizon, interprets the actual downhill direction as uphill.
The illusion is consistent and repeatable. Visitors have been experiencing it for decades. The site at Loma Alta Drive is among the better-documented examples in Southern California.
Sources
Gravity hills across the United States share a common narrative structure: an accident killed people here, and their spirits now push vehicles to safety. Altadena's Loma Alta Drive gravity hill carries its own version.
In the most-cited local variant, a teenage girl took her parents' car without permission, collected friends, and drove at speed along Loma Alta Drive. The inexperienced driver lost control on the incline, spinning until the car struck a tree. Everyone in the vehicle died.
According to the legend, their spirits remain at the hill, pushing vehicles backward to prevent other drivers from repeating the mistake. Visitors who coat their hood or rear bumper with baby powder before the neutral test have reported finding handprints afterward — attributed to the ghost children pushing the car.
A second variant replaces the teenage joyriders with a school bus that stalled on the hill, killing the children inside — this version more closely mirrors a widely distributed urban legend template found at gravity hills across the country. A third, less common telling involves a Native American man crushed beneath a wagon that rolled down the hill.
The USC Digital Folklore Archives has documented accounts of the site from college students in the Los Angeles area, treating it as an active piece of contemporary urban legend rather than verified historical event.
No newspaper records of the joyride fatality described in the primary legend have been located in available sources.
Notable Entities
Drive to the marked stretch of E Loma Alta Drive, stop the car facing downhill, shift into neutral, and observe what appears to be the vehicle rolling backward uphill. The effect is an optical illusion caused by the curvature of the hill relative to surrounding tree and structure geometry. Best experienced on a clear day. Be aware of residential traffic.
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