Roadtrip recap: St George - Yosemite - Portland

[Sub-Urbanite]

Took a drive last week across Nevada to I-5 and the Northwest... some musings...

First of all, I got long-hauled by my taxi coming out of the St. George Airport, which, as a native Las Vegan, I find kind of hilarious. The driver had three route options: a 10 mile route going up to Washington Fields Road, a 12 mile route using River Road, or a 15 mile route going back to I-15 and then into St. George... and took the latter. As soon as we passed the River Road exit, I was just like, "What the hell, man?" I got the bill down $10, but holy cow that's amazing. Longhauled! In St. George!

Went down 15 through Mesquite — seems like the new interchange there was a little over-built, no? — to Moapa and over to U.S. 93. One thought: Feels like NDOT should have their Northbound US 93 signage on SB I-15 at Moapa, not Apex, right? Like, even a "NV 168 to US 93 — Alamo/Ely" sign on SB I-15 would, IMHO, make a bit of sense.

This is my second time in a year driving US 93 from Coyote Springs to Alamo, and it was again a bear. A lot of traffic, quite a few trucks, difficult passing. I wonder how long it will take for NDOT to put in some passing lanes in here.

I think I saw a dozen cars total from Alamo to Tonopah. I also saw many, many cows — made me think about the cost/benefit analysis ranchers have to do of putting up fencing vs. just letting the cows get hit. The good thing about NV 375 is the visibility is really good, so you can generally see cows from way off in the distance. But, still, so many cows.

US 95 from Tonopah to Coaldale Junction has got to be one of the most godforsaken stretches of road in America. When I lived in Vegas, I avoided it like the plague — I'd happily add an hour to my drive and cut over to US 395 at Lida/Big Pine than head west out of Tonopah. The new solar plant made it a little more interesting, but once that was out of sight, that road is just miserable. Also, for a Friday afternoon, seemed like a fair amount of traffic — passing was possible but not plentiful.

I still think NDOT is making a critical mistake if it doesn't bypass Tonopah completely with I-11 — it's roughly 40 miles to go southeast from NV 265 to Goldfield south of Lone Mountain, vs. 60 miles on US 95... even a bypass that hugged Lone Mountain on the north/east flank would only be 45 miles. That's a big drag on the economy, a lot of emissions, and a half-hour roundtrip for drivers. IMHO, Tonopah's got enough going on to be sustainable without Vegas-Reno traffic... the brewery alone is worth the stop.

CA 120 west of Benton was interesting — some of the up-down roller-coaster road grading left me thinking I was going to go airborne coming out of some of those gullies the road went through.

I'd never been up Tioga Pass before, so that was a really interesting drive. The road was a lot better and more direct than I was expecting on the east side... but it seemed to take forever to get to Yosemite Valley once we got into the park itself.

Interesting that 120 is such a slow road coming out of Yosemite, considering all the traffic it must get.

The Priest Grade! Wow, that ticked me off — once I realized that the "Old Priest Grade" would have been so much faster and CA 120's routing was a little unnecessary for a passenger car.

I was happy to see the absurd Portland 600+ sign is still on I-5 north of Stockton. Also, holy crap, Portland is only about what, 50 miles further from Sacramento than San Diego? Crazy.

Went up the eastside highway from Sacramento to Red Bluff — I was generally pleased with this choice. A little surprised that CA 70 wasn't 4 lanes from Marysville to Oroville — less surprised north of Chico, where there just isn't a lot of room to widen the road.

Heading back into Oregon, I debated taking I-5 vs. US 97/26 to get back to Portland. I opted to stay on I-5, and that was a mistake — gameday traffic from UO and OSU added at least an hour to the trip, and I didn't get much above 30 mph from Albany to Portland. And there isn't much that can be done about that, aside from getting more football fans to take Amtrak. Lesson learned on my end — if I ever do that drive again on an autumn Saturday, go east, young man.

[Max Rockatansky]

This seems right up my alley....

-  The problem with the Old Priest Grade is that GPS units direct drivers onto that road versus the new one.  It is much more direct but almost everyone misses the signage telling passenger cars to use low gears.  The Old Priest Grade averages 17% downhill while the new is 4%.  If someone drove both grades as proscribed by the signage they take roughly the same amount of time. 

-  A good way out of the wriggamoral with CA 120 west of Yosemite which I found very recently is J132 and CA 132.  J132 doesn't have any crazy grades like Priest nor any of the traffic that CA 120 gets but roughly goes to the same place.  Plus you get Coulterville which is always a nice bonus.

-  CA 120/Tioga Pass is only 8% grade heading west from US 395.  The road is mainly infamous due to it's height but it is certainly one of the easiest Trans-Sierra Highways.  CA 108/Sonora Pass can be as high as 26% while Ebbetts/CA 4 can be as high as 4%....plus the big one lane.

-  Yeah east of US 395 on CA 120 can be surprising.  The terrain goes over 8,000 feet for awhile and has a weird vibe to it with Benton Hot Springs and Mono Mills as the ghost town backdrop.

-  The only problem with bypassing Tonopah is that it's going to open up an almost 200 mile gap in services between Hawthorne and Beatty.  Goldfield doesn't even have a gas station anymore that's operational.  I've always dug that old roadside motel in Coaldale though. lol

-  How was construction on I-15 in the Virgin River Gorge?  I'm heading that way in a couple weeks and I'm considering a serious detour on old US 91.

[Sub-Urbanite]

-  The only problem with bypassing Tonopah is that it's going to open up an almost 200 mile gap in services between Hawthorne and Beatty.  Goldfield doesn't even have a gas station anymore that's operational.  I've always dug that old roadside motel in Coaldale though. lol

Wouldn't the market solve that? A gas station in Goldfield, a business loop through Tonopah, etc... 

-  How was construction on I-15 in the Virgin River Gorge?  I'm heading that way in a couple weeks and I'm considering a serious detour on old US 91.

Didn't notice any. Which isn't to say it didn't exist, but it certainly wasn't memorable if it did.

[Max Rockatansky]

-  The only problem with bypassing Tonopah is that it's going to open up an almost 200 mile gap in services between Hawthorne and Beatty.  Goldfield doesn't even have a gas station anymore that's operational.  I've always dug that old roadside motel in Coaldale though. lol

Wouldn't the market solve that? A gas station in Goldfield, a business loop through Tonopah, etc...

-  How was construction on I-15 in the Virgin River Gorge?  I'm heading that way in a couple weeks and I'm considering a serious detour on old US 91.

Didn't notice any. Which isn't to say it didn't exist, but it certainly wasn't memorable if it did.

Might be iffy, don't forget we're talking Esmeralda County which is likely where a bypass would go through.  The county is bigger than Deleware and only has 700 people left. 

Sweet, good to know that construction is winding down.  That was brutal following trucks through the Gorge when it was one lane each way. 

[kkt]

-  The problem with the Old Priest Grade is that GPS units direct drivers onto that road versus the new one.  It is much more direct but almost everyone misses the signage telling passenger cars to use low gears.  The Old Priest Grade averages 17% downhill while the new is 4%.  If someone drove both grades as proscribed by the signage they take roughly the same amount of time. 

Is there a convenient reference source for grades on CA highways?  I have seen the warning signs for extreme grades, but not for long but more moderate grades like Tioga Pass.

[Max Rockatansky]

-  The problem with the Old Priest Grade is that GPS units direct drivers onto that road versus the new one.  It is much more direct but almost everyone misses the signage telling passenger cars to use low gears.  The Old Priest Grade averages 17% downhill while the new is 4%.  If someone drove both grades as proscribed by the signage they take roughly the same amount of time. 

Is there a convenient reference source for grades on CA highways?  I have seen the warning signs for extreme grades, but not for long but more moderate grades like Tioga Pass.

I've never really been able to find a reliable state source website on accurate grade information.  I've found this site extremely useful lately, even though it's dedicated to bike riding:

http://www.pjammcycling.com/home.html

Here's what they got for the climb up Lee Vining  Canyon to Tioga Pass:

http://www.pjammcycling.com/yosemite---tioga-pass.html

[coatimundi]

Went up the eastside highway from Sacramento to Red Bluff — I was generally pleased with this choice. A little surprised that CA 70 wasn't 4 lanes from Marysville to Oroville — less surprised north of Chico, where there just isn't a lot of room to widen the road.

This was actually discussed recently, in a thread that I started, because I had taken 70 up and 99 down and was kind of comparing the two. Both were planned to be freeways, and are still (I believe) planned to be freeways. Realistically though, neither is going to be a full freeway directly on its respective path through the Feather River Valley. There are/were a couple of plans for bypasses of Marysville. Caltrans had its own, but it was abandoned. Now Yuba County (Marysville is the seat) is picking it up as the Goldfields Parkway. A very small section has been built and the rest was only put out for bid this summer.

-  A good way out of the wriggamoral with CA 120 west of Yosemite which I found very recently is J132 and CA 132.  J132 doesn't have any crazy grades like Priest nor any of the traffic that CA 120 gets but roughly goes to the same place.  Plus you get Coulterville which is always a nice bonus.

That's Greeley Hill Road. That's the way we get to Yosemite, and it's even the way Google Maps suggests getting to Yosemite. I think it's a little too intimidating for the typical urban (read: Bay Area) driver, especially since the signage is now always great, and the curves are not always signed well.

It's unfortunate that you missed the parts of Yosemite National Park that are actually on Tioga Pass Road. There's some really cool stuff up there, and its level of crowds is always a stark contrast to that of the valley.

[Max Rockatansky]

^^^

Wait do you mean J132 is a little too intimidating with the curves or do you mean CA 120/Priest Grades?  I would have thought 120 would be the more intimidating drive, J132 is tame by comparison I thought.

Also when I up on the Priest Grades yesterday I actually found where the Hetch Hetchy Railroad met both the New and Old Grades:



That little tiny one lane road on the left is called Priest Street and was the grade of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad.  The switchbacks west of there down to Moccasin are fairly obvious right next to the pipeline.  I would speculate that the ROW is still used for maintenance on the pipeline, but I'm not sure if it can be accessed by a private vehicle completely.

Apparently the New Priest Grade was built in 1915 in response to the O'Shaughnessy Dam construction up at Hetch Hetchy.  The Hetch Hetchy Railroad was operational from 1917 to 1949, must have been a hell of a sight to see a train climbing like that.  Anyways, I thought it was an interesting wrinkle to the saga of the Priest Grades.  Below is a map of the Hetch Hetchy Railroad and a right up someone did on Abandoned Rails:



http://www.abandonedrails.com/Hetch_Hetchy_Railroad

Also this is bike writing sight on difficult road climbs.  They actually have a measurement of the grade on the Old Priest Grade:

http://www.pjammcycling.com/old-priest-grade.html