California State Route 14

California State Route 14

State Route 14 (SR 14) is a north–south state highway in the U.S. state of California, largely in the Mojave Desert. The southern portion of the highway is signed as the Antelope Valley Freeway. The route connects Interstate 5, or Golden State Freeway, near Santa Clarita and with U.S. Route 395 near Inyokern. Legislatively, the route extends south of I-5 to State Route 1 in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles, however the portion south of the junction with I-5 has not been constructed. The southern part of the constructed route is a busy commuter freeway serving and connecting the communities of Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster with the rest of the Greater Los Angeles area. The northern portion, from Vincent (south of Palmdale) to Route 395, is legislatively named the Aerospace Highway, as the highway serves Edwards Air Force Base, once one of the primary landing strips for NASA's Space Shuttle. This section is rural, following the line between the hot Mojave desert and the forming Sierra Nevada mountain range. Most of Route 14 is loosely paralleled by a main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, used for the Antelope Valley Line of the Metrolink commuter rail system as well as a connection between Los Angeles and the California Central Valley via Tehachapi Pass.

Linked with US 395, this road connects Los Angeles with such places as Mammoth Mountain, Mono Lake, Yosemite National Park and Reno, Nevada. Route 14 was part of U.S. Route 6 prior to truncation in 1964, when U.S. 6 was a coast-to-coast route from Long Beach to Provincetown, Massachusetts. The non-freeway segment of SR 14 from Silver Queen Road north of Rosamond to Mojave is known as Sierra Highway, as is the old routing between Interstate 5 and Silver Queen Road where SR 14 has been moved to a newer freeway alignment. Portions of Route 14 remain signed with names associated with US 6, including Midland Trail, Theodore Roosevelt Highway and Grand Army of the Republic Highway. This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System.