These California towns are just 20 miles apart but getting from one to the other requires a 350-mile drive and there's a good reason
Published on Mar 18, 2026 at 1:23 PM (UTC+4)
by Alessandro Renesis
Last updated on Mar 18, 2026 at 1:49 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Emma Matthews
These two towns in California are separated by just 20 miles, and yet you have to drive hours to get from one to the other.
For once, this has nothing to do with bad planning or lazy engineers.
There was simply an insurmountable geographical hurdle.
And it’s not the only one in the States.
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Why the journey between these two towns in California takes so long
As the crow flies, only about 20 miles separate Kanawyers and Independence in California.
The problem is that the mountains between them rise above 13,000 feet, and this section of the range has no roads crossing it.
To drive between these two towns, you have to drive south, then around the southern end of the Sierra Nevada near Bakersfield and the Mojave Desert, and back north on Route 395.
As a result, this 20-mile gap is actually a 350-mile drive.
It takes about six hours to get from Kanawyers to Independence.
Or vice versa.
As the crow flies versus as the car drives
This is just the latest example of the difference between theory – as the crow flies – and reality.
The world is full of geographical anomalies that turn what could be a short trip into a really long journey.
The aforementioned example is pretty extreme, but we can think of at least two more that are even worse.
The towns of Skagway and Haines in Alaska, for example, are separated by just 15 miles, but they’re also on opposite sides of a canal.
To drive between them, you must cross into Canada, drive up into Yukon, and then back down into Alaska, and that’s going to take seven hours.
Fortunately, there’s an alternative: a 45-minute ferry.
There is no alternative in the case of what is possibly the worst example of two neighboring towns that are actually not close at all.
Located in the North Cascades in Washington, the small towns of Mazama and Stehekin are separated by some of the most vertical terrain in the US, and there’s simply no way to drive directly from one to the other by road.
Like the infamous Darien Gap in the Pan-American highway – America’s longest highway – but in Washington.
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After beginning his automotive writing career at DriveTribe, Alessandro has been with Supercar Blondie since the launch of the website in 2022. In fact, he penned the very first article published on supercarblondie.com. He’s covered subjects from cars to aircraft, watches, and luxury yachts - and even crypto. He can largely be found heading up the site’s new-supercar and SBX coverage and being the first to bring our readers the news that they’re hungry for.
