Hello, and welcome back to California Canyons and Backroads. Today we'll be taking a drive from Thousand Oaks to Moorpark via the historic Norwegian Grade. This route was built over eleven years by a colony of Norwegian settlers, and completed in 1911. The settlers wanted a safer way of getting their grains down to the Oxnard Plain than the existing roads at Potrero and the Conejo Grade. The Norwegian Grade today is the only surface street connection between the Conejo Valley and Moorpark. At the bottom of the grade sits the McRae Ranch, built by an early movie star and now owned by Conejo Parks and Recreation, and a popular filming location. The Norwegian Grade lets us off in the Santa Rosa Valley, and we'll take a right on Moorpark Road to head into Moorpark. Once there, we'll jog over to Spring Road and cruise through recent neighborhoods, and then cross over the old 118 and into the old downtown area near the train station. We'll continue through more new development on our way out of the city center. Moorpark seems to be growing pretty quickly. One of the reasons I shoot these videos is so I'll have some record of what things were like before places like this change forever. As always, thank you for watching, and enjoy the ride!
![](https://s2.save4k.ru/pic/Rp28Wu_YZ4c/maxresdefault.jpg)