The title of the thread more or less says it all. Had a free day up in Fresno and decided to check out some stuff near the coast that caught my eye. Took a trip down to Santa Rosa Creek Road which was the pre-1964 CA 41 and briefly CA 46 into the 1970s, the section of CA 1 from Cambria to Morro Bay, parts of old US 466 along modern 41, and finally just for the hell of it CA 229 since it's so weird. Looks like this will be a seven part series based off posting my photos ten at a time. As per the norm with my thread I'll save any reference materials I have for the final post.
SO!...with that in mind, Part 1. I had to get to Santa Rosa Creek Road somehow, thankfully the fog wasn't too bad this morning due to the freezing weather which got me to Kettleman City relatively early:
South of Kettleman City I have a very strong suspicion that runs just west of modern CA 41 is part of the original alignment of the highway. My theory is based off the fact that there is an apparent layer of asphalt visible under the dirt top layer in sections, that it crosses CA 33, that the road is a direct shot south while the modern road isn't, and merges back in with CA 41 south of of the 33 junction. First the south bound look:
Followed up by the northbound look at the gas station located the 33 junction:
CA 41 tops out at a summit of about 1,800 feet traversing southbound towards CA 46. Got a nice bit of fog heading downhill towards the junction with 46:
Of course 46 and 41 are multiplexed to Shandon nowadays. Prior to 1964 both US 466 and CA 41 would have multiplexed all the way to Paso Robles. 46 in general between CA 99 and US 101 gets a crap ton of vehicle traffic, it's pretty easy to understand why in retrospect it was a US Route. Caltrans sure tries to dissuade truckers from using CA 41 south of Shandon though:
I don't recall this construction here back in January, it would seem that the expressway is being built east towards the James Dean Memorial. The signage is pretty good showing the multiplex prior to 41 cutting away:
Actually managed to get a decent photo of 46 west of Shandon crossing Indian Creek with no glare that had to be edited out:
What is now CA 41 south of Shandon was not a signed state highway prior to 1964. Instead it was just LRN 125 and as I stated previously CA 41 followed US 466 to US 101. For a couple miles south there was a triple multiplex of US 101, US 466, and CA 41...no wonder it got changed:
Part 2 will be up soon which is where I'll reach Santa Rosa Road.