The Tejon Pass , previously known as Portezuelo de Cortes, Portezuela de Castac, and Fort Tejon Pass is a mountain pass between the southwest end of the Tehachapi Mountains and northeastern San Emigdio Mountains, linking Southern California north to the Central Valley. Both the pass and the grade north of it to the Central Valley are commonly referred to as "the Grapevine". It has been traversed by major roads such as the El Camino Viejo, the Stockton – Los Angeles Road, the Ridge Route, U.S. Route 99, and now Interstate 5. Geography Tejon Pass marks the intersection of the two largest seismic faults in California: the San Andreas and Garlock fault systems. The highest point of the pass is near the northwesternmost corner of Los Angeles County, north of Gorman. Its elevation is along Peace Valley Road and Gorman Post Road, northwest of downtown Los Angeles and south of Bakersfield. Interstate 5, which connects Southern California with the San Joaquin Valley and the north, reaches its highest point in the state, , near the summit of Tejon Pass. The pass has a gradual rise from its southern approach of at Santa Clarita, but a precipitous descent through Grapevine Canyon toward the San Joaquin Valley on the north, where it ends at Grapevine at . On its northward slope lies Fort Tejon State Historic Park, the site of a former U.S. Army post, first garrisoned on August 10, 1854. The pass actually crosses 4 mountain ranges. The stretch from Lake Hughes Road to State Route 138 crosses the Sierra Pelona and the Topatopa Mountains and the section from SR 138 to Grapevine crosses the Tehachapis and the San Emigdios. History Pre-Columbian Historians speak of the area around Gorman, California (just south of the crest of the Tejon Pass), as "one of the oldest continuously used roadside rest stops in California." This is because pre-Columbian indigenous Californians "would have stopped there when it was the Tataviam village of Kulshra'jek", a trading crossroads for hundreds to thousands of years. 18th century In 1772, Lieutenant Pedro Fages crossed the pass in pursuit of military deserters, and named it Portezuelo de Cortes (Cortes Pass). Fages also named the canyon beyond the pass leading down into the Tulare Basin, Cañada de las Uvas (Canyon of the Grapes) for all the wild California grape vines (Vitis californica) growing in it. In the late 18th century, El Camino