CA 180/Kings Canyon Highway (Minker to Cedar Grove)

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 180 through Kings Canyon opened last weekend.  That being the case I had one extra day off before I head out of state for a couple weeks so I took advantage and drove the route from Minker to Cedar Grove this morning.  The album is way bigger than I expected given I took so many road pictures and really I didn't have any historic angle given I just did the old alignment of CA 180 on Dunlap Road in addition to CA 245:

https://www.flickr.com/gp/151828809@N08/0yGmW2

Its actually been quite awhile since I took the modern highway all the way to Grant Grove and I haven't done the Kings Canyon segment since last year.  Here are some of my observations:

-  The 90 degree turn at CA 180 and Reed Avenue is kind of surprisingly behind the times.  I used to encounter a ton of traffic from Reedley in the area, I'm surprised that Caltrans has never put in any easement.

-  There was only one "Scenic" placard directly east of Minker all the way to Cedar Grove.  I know there is one westbound somewhere west of Grant Grove since I saw it last week but I don't remember where.

-  The climb from Minker to Squaw Valley is surprisingly steep, I would speculate it actually worse than CA 63 is heading south to Orange Cove. 

-  From Dunlap Road modern CA 180 climbs much faster out of the foothills to 5,000 feet than the former did.  In fact the modern alignment has some fantastic views of Dunlap Road below it to the south. 

-  Grant Grove in Kings Canyon National Park is signed pretty well despite not being a state highway technically.  Exiting Grant Grove there isn't any speed limit signs all the way east to Cedar Grove which would probably lead the casual driver to believe that the 35 MPH limit in Kings Canyon National Park is continuous.

-  The Kings Canyon Lodge ruins had a Go-Fund-Me sign hand written.  The old mechanical gas pumps were removed and the Lodge grounds were fenced off.  I'd say the situation looks pretty bleak as far as ever getting the burned Lodge grounds ever rebuilt.

-  This was the first time that I ever drove through Kings Canyon where I didn't encounter significant rockfall.  The steep cliff sides usually breed small rock slides, last year I had to stop twice to clear the roadway.

-  I took some decent pictures of the 1933 Kings River Bridge at the bottom of Kings Canyon.  The Kings River was flowing absurdly fast and had carved out some new islands in the river bed upstream.

-  The "End" placard for CA 180 is missing at the boundary for the Cedar Grove section of Kings Canyon National Park.  I would speculate it probably just fell off given it is on a wooden sign post but it would probably lend someone to believe the highway actually continues to the end of the road.  Oddly CA 198 had a similar issue with the missing placard to the south in Sequoia National Park which was just replaced this year.

-  The only speed limit sign I saw was in Cedar Grove which had a "Speed reduced to 35 MPH" followed by the obviously 35 MPH sign.  Heading back westbound through Kings Canyon I didn't observe any speed limit signs.  Got to love the legislative 55 MPH speed limit on rural mountain highways.

-  An interesting wrinkle to CA 180 that I think deserves further looking into is that really there certainly could have been some potential for a Trans-Sierra route here.  Grant Grove is at about 6,600 feet but CA 180 drops down to about 2,800 at the bottom of Kings Canyon and maybe 4,000 something by Cedar Grove?  It wouldn't be feasible to stay open all year given the amount of rock fall it gets in Kings Canyon but it is interesting that Quillz once posted a map showing a CA 180 implied connection on what appeared to be Onion Valley Road on the eastern face of the Sierras.  Really Kearsage Pass at about 11,700 feet would probably would have been the only viable route to take given that there was mining once in the area.

Either way the possibility would have been much more viable prior to the reformation of General Grant National Park into Kings Canyon National Park by 1940.  The 1935 map of Fresno County shows General Grant National Park far to the south of CA 180 through Kings Canyon:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~247281~5515351:Fresno-County-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:california%2Bdivision%2Bof%2Bhighways;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=29&trs=160

Conversely Inyo County barely shows any evidence of Onion Valley Road the same year:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~247289~5515355:Inyo-County-?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:california%2Bdivision%2Bof%2Bhighways;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=33&trs=160

Edit:  Found the post and map Quillz put up last July showing an implied 180 over the Sierras:

Also interesting to note that the same map shows a proposed routing of CA-180 across the Sierra to end at US-395 (then CA-7). Not sure how that would have worked, would have required entirely new roadway most likely, and certainly will never happen because now the Sequoia Nat'l Park is there. (Also interesting to note that any such eastern extension would be running through the highest peaks of the Sierra).

Cahighways even mentions the implied routing over the Sierras on the Grant Grove to Cedar Grove section:

http://www.cahighways.org/177-184.html

[Max Rockatansky]

Speaking of CA 180 and the Kings Canyon area, I had an opportunity to drive all of Hume Lake Road in addition to Tenmile Creek Road this weekend.  Hume Lake and the road of the same name are both very old which is why they show on the 1935 Fresno County Map as County Maintained.  Hume Lake was formed by the impounding of Ten Mile Creek in 1908 which was used as a logging storage reservoir.  The dam that contains Hume Lake is a multiple arch concrete dam which I believe was the first of its kind if I recall correctly.  I want to say that the logging flume that went to Sanger was 73 miles in length as well, essentially it played a large factor in drawing what became CA 180 east of General Grant National Park.  Logging stopped in 1924 but Hume Lake and reservoir were purchased by the Forest Service in 1935. 

A decent article on the Sanger Flume can be found here:

http://www.sangerdepotmuseum.com/history-of-the-flume/

The furthest back I can find any reference to Hume Lake Road was on the 1918 State Highway Map where it is listed as special appropriations road from General Grant National Park to Hume Lake:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239613~5511905:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=83&trs=86

The 1930 State Highway Map is the first to show a complete but yet unimproved highway to Hume Lake with a further implied extension into Kings Canyon being shown which would become the eastern segment of CA 180:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239599~5511899:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Pub_List_No_InitialSort%2CPub_Date%2CPub_List_No%2CSeries_No;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=76&trs=86

As for Hume Lake Road, it is short enough to do a quick photo tour since I didn't dedicate an album for it.  This is the junction on CA 180 west at Hume Lake Road:

IMG_1374 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Hume Lake Road is only 3 miles in length but it is an eventful one straddling a not-so-narrow one-lane roadway on the edge of Kings Canyon:

IMG_1375 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1376 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1378 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1379 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Really Hume Lake Road offers what I think is the best view of Kings Canyon and CA 180 below if you are willing to climb down a little from a pullout:

IMG_1379 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1384 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Coming up to this bend in the road there is a decent view of both Hume Lake Dam and Kings Canyon:

IMG_1390 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1391 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1393 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1394 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Hume Lake Road really doesn't run the shore line of the lake but heads to Hume Lake Christian Camp at the south end of the reservoir:

IMG_1398 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1399 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_1400 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Hume Lake Road ends here but the pavement continues onward as Tenmile Creek Road to the Generals Highway:

IMG_1402 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

Really there isn't much that is notable about Tenmile Creek Road other than it being a shortcut to Sequoia National Park, I have no idea when it was built but I would speculate 1960s/1970s from the design of the bridges.  Really the attraction would be the shore line that has decent views of Hume Lake Dam and Kings Canyon off in the distance:

IMG_1410 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

So really nothing too fancy, just another little piece of what drove the push to have 180 extend all the way to Kings Canyon and points beyond in the early highway era.  Definitely a worthwhile piece to add to the story of 180 I'd say.  Incidentally, Kings Canyon really is the place to go if you want a quiet holiday trip during a 4th of July weekend day off.  The crowds are attracted to Grant Grove but not really much else beyond that, even Hume Lake is approachable late in the day.

[Max Rockatansky]

Apparently at least one car if not two have gone over the side of CA 180 down into Kings Canyon in the last couple weeks at Convict Flat:   I believe that Convict Flat is cover of the first Flickr album I included for this thread:

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article166594022.html

http://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article167038957.html

Given the 500 foot plunge and the swell of the river I don't think the one car that was found can be removed for quite some time.  I haven't seen any updates so I don't know if any bodies were recovered. 

[Max Rockatansky]

The second car falling off 180 into the Kings River was confirmed:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sd-me-missing-couple-20170814-story.html

To illustrate the spot where these wrecks are happening is on the left at the bend in the road in this picture:

IMG_6546 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

On the right in this one, I'm essentially standing at the exact spot of both crashes in fact:

IMG_6551 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

And the immediate drop to the bottom:

IMG_6561B by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

The location isn't exactly in Kings Canyon National Park but rather the Giant Sequoia National Monument section of Sequoia National Forest between Grant Grover and Cedar Grove.  The bend in 180 located above the Kings River is more or less an adhoc overlook that uses a shoulder.  Really both cars would have had to been traveling too fast westbound to fall into the river like and they would have been having to crazy some substantial speed too given there is a generous shoulder with the pullout.  Really weird that two cars would end up in the drink like that, I'm sure it is going to raise a lot of questions locally if 180 is actually a safe route.

[Max Rockatansky]

The red car was pulled to the Kings River bank today and the bodies inside were recovered:

https://www.facebook.com/FresnoSheriff/posts/1433402806781381

Looks like the white Focus has been identified but no word of the bodies of the San Diego couple are inside.  I would speculate at this point both cars are staying at the bottom of Kings Canyon for good.  I can't find any of records of fatal crashes from Horseshoe bend on 180, truly a bizarre set of circumstances.