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In the summer, the desert heat brings tourists and police patrols. We count eight cars in the first hour of driving. Fortunately, the road is barely traveled in the winter months. Knowing a ticket for 100 mph has $1000 consequences, we keep the speed blasts brief. The M2 bucks underneath us, its wide Michelin Pilot Super Sports singing over the coarse, 40-grit asphalt. After spending some of the morning on surrounding roads, we venture back to 190 to find it as slick and glazed as a Krispy Kreme original. L.A.’s drought-parched reservoirs are beginning to fill, but, as hoped for, we’re staying dry in the desert rain shadow. Father Crowley Vista Point is worth a stop for the mountain views and the chance to see Navy F/A-18s in training as they blast through the valley. But the winter temps can fall below zero, so visitors are sparse and the road is empty. In the summer, high temperatures and chalk-powder scenery bring in their share of tourists. A few years ago, our deputy editor learned that four-figure lesson from an Inyo County sheriff.Ī mix of long straights and tight corners that cut over the Panamint Range, California Route 190 pairs well with the M2’s turbocharged horsepower and nimble handling. Despite this, 190 is not exactly an American autobahn. A pack of coyotes eyes the M2, and a clear view of the road ahead stretches for miles. Blue mountains capped with snow surround us. A C/D favorite, 190 starts out as lonesome straightaways and CinemaScope ­vistas seemingly pulled from the film Vanishing Point. Olancha sits at the origin of the eastern segment of California State Route 190, the road to Death Valley. It’s still raining out here, but the forecast is dry for Day Two of M2, so we make plans to settle in nearby Ridgecrest for the night. We pull into an abandoned diner to consider our options.

Three hours northeast of Los Angeles is Olancha, a tiny settlement with a population of 192. To beat the storm, we’re headed east in the hope that the Sierra Nevada’s prodigious rain shadow will keep us dry. Albert Hammond sang it best: “It never rains in California, but girl, don’t they warn ya it pours, man, it pours.”Ī winter storm is pounding Southern California, and wouldn’t you know it? Its arrival perfectly coincides with our week with the new BMW M2.