Max's Pacific Southwest Roads

[Max Rockatansky]

These were the best youtube videos of Kaiser Pass Road I could find:

Why does everyone always pick slow oldies for driving videos?  That works now and then if the video is edited well but does everyone have to do the same thing? 

[hm insulators]

Great thread! As an insulator collector, a couple of times, I've taken the side road to Big Creek and the enormous Southern California Edison hydroelectric project built there about a hundred years ago to furnish electricity to Los Angeles.

[Max Rockatansky]

Great thread! As an insulator collector, a couple of times, I've taken the side road to Big Creek and the enormous Southern California Edison hydroelectric project built there about a hundred years ago to furnish electricity to Los Angeles.

Thanks, yeah next year when I'm a little more confident in the condition of my car I'll give the northern Huntington Lake Road a go if not all the way to Edison Lake.  Of course this will be a weekday presumably since it was a getting a little nerve wracking seeing how many cars were trying to reach Mono Hot Springs on Kaiser Pass Road.  I might want to try to the Climb to Kaiser Bike race maybe next year which would largely follow the older alignments of 168 like Tollhouse Road if I'm to understand correctly.

Finally got some down time I'm hoping to get something up today about CA 180.

[Max Rockatansky]

All right finally got motivated to do a write up on CA 180 east of Fresno to Kings Canyon.  First off if you are going to understand CA 180 east of Fresno you need to get familiar with the intersection of current CA 245 and Dunlap Road north of Badger:



This seemingly obscure intersection with a local road has carried no less than FOUR different numbered California state highways into the foreground from where I'm taking the picture of the CA 245 sign. 

From 1934 to either 1941 or 1942 CA 180 would have used Dunlap Road on the right before it was moved north to the Kings Canyon Highway and continue into the foreground northward while CA 65 would have approached from the left and terminated:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239585~5511890:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=16&trs=86

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239582~5511888:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=18&trs=86

Of course once CA 180 was moved north so was the terminus of CA 65 as well.  Dunlap Road really just became a locally used road.  From driving Dunlap back to modern CA 180 it's pretty obvious why the route was selected to reach Kings Canyon....low grades that seemed to have natural cuts into the mountainside.

Back in 1965 the route on the left became CA 69 when the planned extension through the low Sierra Foot Hills was planned.  Basically this is how the two segments of CA 65 came to be and why CA 59 suddenly ends in Snelling...because it was meant to terminate at CA 69!

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239522~5511848:State-Highway-Map,-California,-1965?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=58&trs=86

Of course with a number like 69 and the remoteness of the terrain this of course led to rumored signage theft.  Sparker actually went into considerable detail about a friend he knew who apparently stole CA 69 signs frequently.  I would suspect that it was more than one individual who was probably stealing 69 signs....  So in 1972 the route you see on the left became the CA 245 we know it to be today:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239506~5511838:California-State-Highways,-December?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=68&trs=86

So with that in mind...CA 180 and Kings Canyon.  All the way back to 1934 there appears to have been a CA 180 reaching as far as Kings Canyon along the route I described above.  Interestingly it appears that CA 180 and LRN 263 were originally meant to be a Trans-Sierra Highway reaching US 395:

-  From cahighways.org:  "In 1934, Route 180 was (to be) signed along the route from Jct Route 25 at Pacines to Jct. Route 7 (US 395) at Independence, via Fresno. Oddly, it was part of LRN 263, defined in 1959, and does not appear to have been part of the state highway system between 1933 and 1959. The routing was only "proposed" in 1963, and likely corresponds to a county route.:

Of course reading that definition above and looking at most post-1964 California Highway maps it's pretty easy to infer that that J1 in Fresno County was meant to be part of CA 180 reaching a western terminus at CA 25....but how the hell was there even a notion of reaching US 395?  I'm not sure which idea is more absurd; CA 168 reaching US 395 or CA 180...nonetheless still very much an intriguing proposition.  You can actually see a large inferred route for CA 180 on the 1934 Highway Map:

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239594~5511896:Road-Map-of-the-State-of-California?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=10&trs=86

Of course the story gets stranger with General Grant National Park being present all the way back to 1890.  Kings Canyon National Park was formed in 1940 which included Grant Grove into it's jurisdiction effectively killing any notion of CA 180 reaching US 395.  So with that in mind....what's to see on CA 180 from Grant Grove to Kings Canyon?...quite a bit actually.  These pictures are from April and May during various degrees of opening of CA 180 heading down into Kings Canyon Proper.  Starting off with Grant Grove:





Photo 1 is from Grant Grove proper with the Redwood Sequoias which of course are the largest trees in the world.  The General Grant Tree is currently the second largest tree in the world after General Sherman in the Giant Forest to the South in Sequoia National Park.  Photo 2 is from the Wilsonia historic district of cabins that were largely present before Kings Canyon National Park, Giant Sequoia National Monument, and Sequoia National Park gobbled up most of the land that was in private hands.  Photo 3 is a ridge coming down from Grant Grove that has some obvious signs of a fairly recent burn...this will be notable later.  Grant Grove is roughly 6,500 feet above sea level and it's all down hill for CA 180 all the way to Kings Canyon proper.  Of course the Kings Canyon National Park boundary is split by a considerable distance from Grant Grove to Kings Canyon itself and is gapped by Sequoia National Forest:

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7611678,-118.829615,12z?hl=en
https://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/maps.htm

This was actually a really fun drive, I would suspect that was one of the first people down to Kings Canyon this year given that I didn't see a single vehicle from the top, to the bottom, back to the top of the Canyon.  The views of the canyon from high up on CA 180 are pretty damn awesome but you really don't get too good a view of the South and Middle Forks of the Kings River until the Junction View above the Kings Canyon Lodge:





Speaking of Kings Canyon Lodge and the ruins I check them out on the way down...I say ruins because the Lodge burned down in a wildfire back in August last year.  Kind of sad considering that the Lodge dated back to 1937 before the Kings Canyon National Park consolidation.  The Lodge itself is at an elevation of 3,750 feet:



Of course the road gets much more narrow you get to the bottom of CA 180 and South Fork Kings River.  Actually I had to get out of the car twice to clear rock falls that were blocking the road...good thing nobody else was around because I had to park it in the middle of the highway.  I'm to understand that the confluence of the Middle and South Forks of the Kings River is at 2,257 feet above sea level...or something like that since there is a lot of claims about Kings Canyon.  Kings Canyon itself is the "deepest" (I say that with quotations because claims on what the depth is are a little all over the place) canyon in the U.S with depths listed somewhere between 7,900 to 8,200 feet.  That claim is largely made possible due to the fact that the high Sierra is on one end of the canyon with Spanish Peak specifically.  Anyways here is what the bottom of Kings Canyon looks like with another view of the confluence on the way back up:






Of course CA 180 continues all the way to Cedar Grove where it terminates at the Kings Canyon National Park Boundary.  I'm not very clear on one thing though, does CA 180 technically exist within Grant Grove?  It seems that it is the case given the signage at the intersection of the Generals Highway says "CA 180" with no "To" markers whereas CA 198 is clearly marked as "to" along the Generals Highway through Sequoia National Park:

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7243766,-118.9553096,3a,90y,90h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sCtXGA5G1OkLkIzP4ufTdKA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

https://www.google.com/maps/@36.7242019,-118.9554303,3a,37.5y,90h,90t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sjPj0SB4Dbhgrzm_iG6etWg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en

Of course the history on the Generals Highway is much more clearly outlined by the Park Services as evidenced by how much data I found for the Colony Mill Road and Generals Highway Thread.  Back on the way up I did stop by Hume Lake to check out the dam...oddly I found some of the views along Hume Lake Road to be just as good as CA 180 in regards to seeing Kings Canyon.  I would just take some caution trying to get views since the road is a very narrow two lane with NO pull-offs from scenic views.  Regardless, I'm to understand that Hume Lake Dam was the world's first completed concrete arch dam being finished back in 1908.  Hume Lake Dam is at an elevation of 5,200 feet and impounds Ten Mile Creek which has a road that will take you all the way down to the Generals Highway roughly following it:




I'm planning on paying J1/Panoche Road/Little Panoche Road a visit in the next couple weeks in conjunction with Mount Hamilton.  I'm actually hoping that if the snow holds out most of October that I can get Sherman, Ebbetts, and Senora Passes in before they close for winter.  I still need to cover some of my photos from Old US 66, Big Sur, Donnor Pass, US 95 in Nevada, NV 374, CA 178, CA 190, AND the one I really want to go through but will take me a long time CA 49 with the mining districts.

Also, given I've been in the Sequoia/Kings Canyon area so much this year I've had an opportunity to drive all of CA 216, CA 201, and CA 63.  Out of the three CA 63 north of Visalia is the most viable but really all three routes out to be on the short list for relinquishment to Tulare County.  All three take crazy 90 degree turns or illogical directional shifts for through highways.  Tulare County already has several county routes that are a higher quality like Road 80 from Visalia to Dinuba.  Anyways I know one frequent poster on the Pacific Board and disagreed greatly on the routes....so yeah, I've driven them all and that's my two-cents.

[Rothman]

Don't know where you get the Kings Canyon info as being deepest, but Hells Canyon is generally considered the deepest.

[Max Rockatansky]

Don't know where you get the Kings Canyon info as being deepest, but Hells Canyon is generally considered the deepest.

Hence why I put it in quotations, sometimes publications like this pop up claiming 8,200 feet deep for Kings Canyon:

http://www.myyosemitepark.com/kings-canyon/

But for the record the Park Service has this:

https://www.nps.gov/seki/learn/nature/geology_overview.htm

Edit:  Just caught the proof reading error I made above with the 10,000 foot thing which was meant as a reference to Spanish Peak and not the maximum depth of the canyon itself.  Highway 49 is going to be a complete cluster $@*$ abortion of obscure or claimed settlement dates with the mine districts or worse....peak populations since the data on both is wonky or unreliable.  Ironically I kind of hit on something like that with Bodie already but I think a better job at putting disclaimers up about apparent factoids that may or may not be totally accurate from the source.  There is one that I neglected to mention (at least I think that I did without re-reading the whole thread again) about the peak population being about 10,000 instead something like 8,000.  Mostly those claims come up from sources who say that migrant mine workers weren't accounted for accurately.  In those instances it's basically impossible to tell for certain what's fact or if absolute certainty can be established at all anymore. 

[Rothman]

Yeah, I thought you were going to go with the NPS saying "arguably" the deepest.

USFS argues back.

[Max Rockatansky]

Yeah I would probably go with whatever the Forest Service says is the official depth.  I've been trying to find Sequoia National Forest's take on the depth of Kings Canyon but I ran out of time....I got to run out the door soon for a car detail, I'll try to find it while I'm there.

Edit:  Unless I'm missing something that I didn't see it seems Sequoia National Forest is mum on the topic about Kings Canyon despite the lowest part being in their jurisdiction:

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3801985.pdf

Also I should note that the Park Service has the bottom of Kings Canyon at an official 2,260 feet at the South/Middle Fork Kings River Confluence and Spanish Peak being the top at 10,051. 

[Max Rockatansky]

Alright, this was a March trip up the Golden Chain Highway (CA 49), over I-80 to the Lake Tahoe area and back down to Death Valley to see the "super bloom."  Basically CA 49 is going to occupy a crap ton of this road report because of how much history is on the route with mining districts.  I'll try to notate as many route realignments as possible...but there is a lot even for a California state highway.  So as usual....99 out of Bakersfield up 41 where I turned onto CA 49 at the now southern terminus.

I say NOW because originally CA 49 originally terminated at CA 140 in Mariposa in 1934.  According to cahighways the road from Oakhurst to Mariposa was proposed back in 1959 as an extension of LRN 65, this is reflective on the 1960 Highway Map.  Of course this road would later become CA 49 but it still wasn't completed for several more years..possibly 1967....despite being reassigned as LRN 49 during the 1964 Highway renumbering

1960 Highway Map

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239537~5511858:State-Highway-Map,-California,-1960?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=48&trs=86

1964 Highway Map

http://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~239525~5511850:State-Highway-Map,-California,-1964?sort=Date&qvq=q:caltrans;sort:Date;lc:RUMSEY~8~1&mi=56&trs=86

1967 Highway Map

So with all that in mind this was the original southern starting point for CA 49 on the outskirts of Mariposa:



I don't really care for Oakhurst all that much...  It's gotten way too much of tourist vibe being the main gateway to Yosemite via CA 41 and the Wawona Road.  Oakhurst wasn't really part of the 1849 Gold Rush era and was founded later in the 1870s.  Fun fact about Oakhurst though, Sierra Online used to be based out of the city when they were cranking out Kings Quest, Police Quest, and Space Quest Games.  Making my way up on CA 49 into Mariposa County I noticed there wasn't really much of note that was worth stopping to see.  Supposedly Mormon Bar has some Gold Rush era structures but I've never noticed any, but I am aware that the California State Mining and Mineral Museum is located there.


Personally I kind of find Mariposa to be something of a more fitting terminus for CA 49 since it seems to be the last really significant 1849 era Gold Rush town.  It seems Mariposa was originally founded in 1849 or 1850 originally a couple miles west of the current town site which was settled in 1854.  The original Mariposa County Court House is still in use today and apparently is the oldest continuously used county court house in the state.  The other picture is from downtown where CA 140 and CA 49 are multiplexed before CA 140 heads towards Yosemite via the Merced River Gorge:




Heading north of Mariposa on CA 49 there are two more ghost towns but they really aren't worth stopping at since there isn't much left; Mt Bullion and Mt Ophir.  Really the next notable site is Bear Valley at the junction of CA 49 and J16.  Apparently Bear Valley was originally known as Haydenville back in 1851 and made the name change to Bear Valley in something like 1858.  Bear Valley is claimed to have peaked out at about 3,000 people before the mines shut down but now there is not much left but a couple crumbling buildings.




North of Bear Valley is one of the few really heavy mountain grade sections of CA 49.  The elevation gains fast and there is plenty of twisties.  I forget if the elevation goes above 4,000 feet but it dips back down to under 1,000 feet Lake McClure, The Merced River, and Bagby Ghost Town.  Bagby was founded in the 1890s and was a stop on the Yosemite Valley Railroad from 1907 to 1945.  Bagby pretty much died out when the Yosemite Valley Railroad shut down but it wasn't until 1967 when the New Exchequer Dam was completed and in turn flooded the town site when Lake McClure was raised.  Given how much Lake McClure has dropped you can see ruins of Bagby along the Merced River Bed along with the ROW of the Yosemite Valley Railroad:





North of Bagby on CA 49 at the junction with CA 132 is Coulterville.  Supposedly Coulterville was called Maxwell's Creek from 1850 to 1853 when it was changed to the modern name.  Rumor is that Coulterville had 3,000 to 5,000 residents at it's peak but now it has less than 200.  There are some neat ruins, a cool steam train, in addition to a Gold Rush era Jefferies Hotel.





A couple miles north of Coulterville on CA 49 takes you into Tuolumne County.

[Max Rockatansky]

Continuing on with CA 49 in Tuolumne County....

Just over the Tuolumne County Line CA 49 multiplexes with CA 120 near the Don Pedro Reservoir.  The weird thing is that this largely a 65 MPH zone for whatever reason instead of the standard 55 MPH two-lane highways you usually see in California.  This kind of reminds me of other highways like CA 62 east of 29 Palms....I would speculate that for some reason wide should width yields that extra 10 MPH bump to 65 for whatever reason.  Continuing east would get up you either your choice of the New Priest Grade or Old Priest Grade...but I've talked about those.

At the bottom of the Don Pedro Reservoir there was once a town called Jacksonville.  Apparently Jacksonville was founded in 1849 but I'm not exactly sure when it died out.  I do know the area was flooded over in 1923 when the Don Pedro Dam was finished and even more so in 1971 when reservoir was raised.  Unlike Bagby ain't much to see here:




Continuing north on CA 49 I came to Chinese Camp where CA 120 split east and CA 49 continued north.  Chinese Camp apparently had no people of ethnic Chinese descent on the last census which is ironic considering the town may have had as many 5,000 during the height of the Gold Rush.  Apparently Chinese Camp was founded in 1849, not much left today




Heading up north on CA 49 takes you to another multiplex this time with CA 108, both enter Jamestown.  Jamestown is apparently named after the Colonel who founded Sonora with the former coming to fruition sometimes in the 1850s.  Oddly Jamestown is only a CDP despite actually have a town or city feel to it....I guess Sonora is the only incorporated city in Tuolumne County.  It would seem that Main Street is the original alignment of CA 49 as the modern highway seems to bypass downtown.  There is also a neat museum called the 1897 Railroad Museum here:






Continuing north to Sonora CA 108 breaks east to Sonora pass while CA 49 takes what appears to be a bypass.  I'm fairly certain CA 49 would have continued east to Washington Street and cut north through more of Sonora proper.  Sonora was founded in the 1850s by miners hailing for the Mexican State of the same name.  Oddly Sonora really hasn't tapered off very much and seems to be one of the "trendy" places to be now...lots of artsy fartsy hipster-esc type shops occupying the buildings along CA 49.  Neat town but there is definitely where traffic picked up from the tourism brigade:






From here I took a slight detour off of CA 49 to Columbia.  I guess Columbia technically "isn't" a ghost town given that the area surrounding it is occupied but the downtown section certainly is....and ironically is a California State Park.  Apparently Columbia was founded in 1850 and was at some point possibly the second biggest city in California.  Rumor is that by the 1860s Columbia was largely abandoned with some of the last mine shafts even being dug under the downtown area:







Back on CA 49 I came across a historic marker for Tuttletown.  Apparently Tuttletown was a site founded by Mormon Miners in 1848 and was occupied by Mark Twain in the 1860s:



From here CA 49 continues north via bridge into Calaveras County over the New Melones Lake.

[Max Rockatansky]

Calaveras County...and yes if you aren't from California or not familiar with it this really keeps going and going on CA 49. 

So....New Melones Lake is named after the town of Melones which would have been located at the bottom of said lake.  Apparently the name is recycled from what Carson Hill was originally called and was founded in 1879.  I'm to understand that there was a Wild West movie studio here in the 1920s which lasted possibly until the town was drowned out by the lake in 1944.  I probably could have gotten a better picture but I got stuck at a flagman that was giving me the stink eye and there was a CHP officer within sight....so I had to take a moving picture.  Too bad since I'm told you can see the ruins of Melones now that the lake level is so low:



Speaking of Carson Hill it's located directly north of New Melones Lake on CA 49.  Carson Hill was founded in 1854 as Melones but was renamed...not after Kit Carson but a US Army sergeant.  The town of Carson Hill died out in the 1930s but the mine is still active...so yes there is still plenty of gold in California:




North of Carson Hill you come to Angels Camp where you can take CA 4 to the dreaded Ebbetts Pass.  Angels Camp was founded in 1851 as Carson Creek but changed to the modern name by 1853.  Angels Camp actually became an incorporated city in 1912 and largely absorbed the neighboring town of Attaville.  I would speculate that CA 4 used to use what is now CA 4 business and would have multiplex CA 49 through downtown Angels Camp:






Speaking of Attaville, it was founded in 1852.  Despite being part of Angels Camp now the old 1858 school is still standing....and I managed to grab a stray CA 4 shield without intending to:



Continuing north to on CA 49 you'll enter San Andreas which is the Calaveras County seat.  Apparently San Andreas was founded by Mexican miners back 1848.  I'm to understand twice the town was destroyed by fire in 1858 and 1866 before it became the county seat in 1866.  CA 49 apparently used to travel down Main Street in the picture and up Gold Strike Road north back to the modern highway:




This is roughly where I popped out on Pool Station Road a couple weeks back heading to Carson Pass.  Heading up to Mokelumne Hill there is junctions with CA 26 and CA 12...apparently CA 26 was CA 8 before I-8 was a thing, I'm sure that's easily reseahttp://i1255.photobucket.com/albums/hh630/MadMaxRockatansky73/9SanAndreas_zps2srcix2p.jpgrched on cahighways.  Mokelumne Hill was founded in 1848 and had a claimed 15,000 residents "supposedly" by 1850.  Mokelumne Hill was the original county seat of Calaveras County until it was moved to Sonora.  CA 49 appears to have used Main Street and Center Street before being realigned on a bypass.  If I remember correctly there is even a Historic CA 49 signed completed with a shield.  After leaving Mokelumne Hill CA 49 quickly enters Amador County:

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 49 takes a dip under 1,000 feet as it crosses the North Fork Mokelumne River into Amador County.  There is actually a couple truck lanes on the uphill grade heading north to Jackson.  At the top of the hill is the ruins of Butte City and the Butte Store.  Apparently Butte City was a short lived town site founded in the 1850s and the Butte Store was built in 1857.  I don't know much more beyond that but it's pretty jarring to see an almost 150 year old structure almost immediately have a huge uphill grade:




Jackson was founded in 1848 at the start of the California Gold Rush.  After Amador County split off from Calaveras County Jackson would become the county seat which it remains today.  Jackson actually had an active mine until WWII when the Kennedy Mine shut down.  Modern CA 49 is an obvious bypass and it appears the original alignment was through downtown Jackson on Broadway, Water Street, Main Street, and Jackson Gate Road.  This is also where CA 88 breaks west to Nevada via Carson Pass....just don't get gas here if you can help it....turned into a wriggamoral with check engine lights a couple weeks back:





CA 49 multiplexes CA 88 out of Jackson and cuts north to Sutter Creek.  Sutter Creek's downtown is located just north of CA 104 on the aptly named "Old CA 49."    Apparently Sutter Creek was scouted out for timber interests a couple years prior to the Gold Rush but had a post office by 1852.  Apparently Sutter Creek incorporated twice in 1854 and 1912.  Basically both Jackson and Sutter Creek feel more like suburbs of Sacramento with all the modern businesses along the newer CA 49 bypasses...CA 88 being such a good all-year pass can likely be thanked for that:




Two miles north on Old CA 49 is Amador City.  Amador City is weird since it is still technically incorporated despite only about 150 residents.  Amador City was founded back in 1863 and the incorporation dates back to 1915:





Following Old CA 49 out of Amador City takes you back to the modern CA 49 which eventually enters Drytown.  Apparently Drytown was a tongue and cheek attempt at humor given that it had over 20 saloons in it's heyday.  Apparently Drytown was founded in the 1850s but most of it burned down in 1860s which led to it really lacking in mining era buildings:



North of Drytown you'll find Plymouth located at the junction of CA 49 and Old Sacramento Road.  Given that you pass CA 16 a little bit south of Plymouth I would assume that Old Sacramento Road is the old alignment of the highway?  Apparently Plymouth was founded alongside another town called Pokerville in the 1850s and both would eventually merge.  Apparently the incorporation of Plymouth dates back to 1917 and there is a winery that has origins in 1856:



A couple miles north of Plymouth CA 49 enters El Dorado County....

[Max Rockatansky]

All right El Dorado County was last segment of CA 49 I hit before jumping on I-80 towards Nevada.

So....El Dorado and Diamond Springs apparently are one and the same nowadays.  Diamond Springs was founded in 1848 and El Dorado followed some time in the 1850s.  Not much is left of the original buildings from either town site and really they are just outskirts of Sacramento:





CA 49 kind of gets twisted up again north of El Dorado/Diamond Springs heading to Placerville.  Placerville was one of the big dogs of the Gold Rush era given how close it was located to Coloma where gold was discovered.  "Supposedly" Placerville was first known as Hangtown in 1848 before taking the modern name in 1850.  I know for certain if that's true but with over a dozen places being called "Dog Town" around the same time it wouldn't surprise me.  Placerville incorporated in 1854 and became the El Dorado County seat in 1857.  Granted I never actually went and researched this but it would seem the pre-expressway alignment of US 50 through Placerville followed Broadway, Main Street, and Placerville Drive heading east to west. 







CA 49 crosses the US 50 expressway and basically follows the crazed alignment of Coloma Road down to Coloma itself.  Of course Coloma was where gold was discovered in 1848 (funny they call it the 1849 Gold Rush) at Sutter's Mill on the South Fork of the American River.  Coloma was established as a mill back in the 1830s and was the original county seat of El Dorado County.  Coloma had dropped to about 200 residents by about 1870 and largely is a ghost town now...save for the status of being a state park.  There is some neat stuff to see in Coloma be it old buildings, bridges, or probably the strangest state highway in the state in CA 153 which is only half a mile long.  CA 153 extends from CA 49 to James Marshall's grave site...who is the guy who found the gold I mentioned above.  I honestly don't think that I can find a more obscure California State Highway to reference other than CA 153....too bad I didn't get a sign picture:








Leaving Coloma the terrain levels out a little bit on the way to Auburn...by that I mean that it isn't anywhere near as narrow as the route gets north of Placerville.  There was one more ghost town to see before hitting I-80 with Pilot Hill.  Apparently Pilot Hill dates back to 1849 and had a post office by 1854.  Beyond that....who knows?...I can't find anything else on the topic despite the rather large high rise building that remains.  I did pass the CA 193 junction in "Cool" but didn't see anything too captivating to catch the eye:



Basically from here I just went to Auburn to I-80 since it was getting late in the day and I was kind of tired.  CA 49 of course heads north even more so all the way up to CA 70 which would have been US 40A from 1954 to 1964.

Of course I-80 is the main route over the Sierras and basically follows closely to the former path US 40 took over Donner Pass via the slightly higher Donner Summit which is 7,227 feet opposed to Donner Pass being 7,056.  I did get some photos of Donner Pass and Donner Lake before heading down to Truckee:





From Truckee I took CA 267 down to Lake Tahoe and CA 28 which of course becomes NV 28.  Basically if you're wondering why I wanted to take I-80 instead of US 50/Echo there are two reasons; weekend traffic in Tahoe, and I just wanted to see Coloma.  Regardless I've covered Tahoe already so I'll just post a picture or two:




Basically from here it was a simple jog east to Carson City via US 50 and then the multiplex with US 395.  I stayed in downtown Carson City and I kind of regret it.  It was almost impossible to get anywhere for food with all the construction that was going on.  Thankfully it wasn't present in such a large form when I was back last month.

[Max Rockatansky]

And thus the slog to Death Valley begun.

I made my way up to William Street and followed it until US 50 got picked up eastbound.  I stopped by old downtown Dayton on the way to US 95A.  Dayton apparently dates back to 1850 but really picked up importance after the Comstock Lode was found up in Storey County.  There are a couple older buildings and hotels just off modern US 50 that are worth the short detour to go see.  Apparently US 50 used Pike Street south to Main Street and probably River Street back to the modern highway:





I cut south on US 95A to avoid Fallon....boy did this go to shit.  There was someone in a Buick who insisted on driving 18 MPH through US 95A in Yerington.  Basically I had people piling behind me so I had to pull the illegal pass..thankfully nobody was really around to see it.  US 95A cuts the edge of the Walker Reservation before hooking back up with US 95 proper just north of Walker Lake.  Speaking of Walker Lake...made a pit stop given I was about hit the dual 94 miles without service past Hawthorne:



US 95 is one of my favorite two-lane highways in the country.  Basically it's almost all 70 MPH zones with little to no people around to bother you.  There is truckers but even they are few and far between...usually hauling a land train which would be 2 or 3 trailers long.  Passing them is easier all dirt because of the remoteness of the Great Basin Region in general.  I would speculate if you took Clark County out of the equation that it would have a population density similar to Alaska....and so many people think I-11 ought to go through here.

After Hawthorne there is a couple towns on the 94 miles between Tonopah...only thing is that they are ghost towns at best and really don't offer services.  Of course NV 359 will take you back to California via CA 167 north of Mono Lake, Bodie is nearby as well.  I would suspect getting assigned to the Hawthrone Army Depot basically is a career killer but it's funny to think that there was a real consideration of Japanese invasion of the west coast that led to it being placed east of the Sierras.  Of course you have NV 361 if you want to head back up to US 50 for whatever reason...first town up will be Mina which ironically have a rest area.  I didn't see a soul in Luning despite a census claim of 87 people back in 2005:




South of Luning you got Mina which had a claimed population of 150 something a couple years back in 2010 on a census.  Basically I'm not seeing where these people might be other than off somewhere on a ranch in the general area.  There was a lot more abandoned businesses in Mina than in Luning.  I should mention that Dayton was in Lyon County while both Mina and Luning are in Mineral....kinda of dig the Bate's Motel theme going on here:




Following US 95 south if you were so inclined you could take NV 360 which follows the old Carson and Colorado Railroad as a short cut to US 6.  At the US 95 and US 6 junction you'll find what's left of Coaldale which is in Esmeralda County.  Apparently this place was an open service station until 1993 when the EPA shut it down:





Continuing east on US 95 you enter Nye County and really one of the few traces of civilization out in the Great Basin past Hawthorne in Tonopah.  You need to stop in Tonopah....because if you are heading to Vegas unless you want to stop in Beatty you won't have another opportunity.  Tonopah opened up as a mine town in 1900 but that had really dropped off the map by the 1920s.  Basically Tonopah is heavily reliant on the Tonopah Test Range which is part of the whole Nellis/Nevada Test Site complex:



But being a turn of the century mining town Tonopah has some unique structures:





I noticed something weird heading south to Goldfield on US 95...what's up with the closure that's supposed to end next month on Silverpeak Road?  You can take NV 265 to Silverpeak and the mines but even that had major construction signs.  Is Silverpeak Road being paved?...how big is that mine operation anyways?  That's fascinating to me considering Silverpeak Road near Goldfield wasn't even worthy of a pre-1976 Nevada Highway designation...and they were not stingy handing those out to questionable dirt roads.  Of course...you could always take US 6 to Ely...166 miles with no service that way.

Anyways...US 95 re-enters Esmeralda County and runs through Goldfield.  Before I get into the saga that is Goldfield I'll qualify something for you the reader.  Esmeralda County has a population of 783 as of the 2010 census...but has a total area of 3,589 square miles.  So picture an area comparable in size to Rhode Island and Delaware combined...then remove almost all the nearly 2 million people...THAT'S Esmeralda County.  Basically it's post apocalyptic...but with 1920s flair thanks to Goldfield.

Which brings me to Goldfield itself which is the county seat of Esmeralda County despite being technically a CDP.  Goldfield probably is one of the last great mining towns of the west being established in 1902.  Legend has it that Goldfield was once the largest city in Nevada by 1906 with 20,000 people but I can't say for certain given that accuracy with population figures wasn't exactly organized thing back in the early 20th century.  The Earp family even had a presence in Goldfield from 1904 to 1905.  Goldfield mostly declined in the 1910s with one of the final blows coming in 1923 when most of the city burned down.  Basically the city is a landscape of early 20th century wreckage and would definitely recommend it as a stop worth seeing:








Leaving Tonopah I forgot to mention that you start another 94 segment of US 95 without gas which includes Goldfield.  Beatty is at the end of that segment but really isn't anything special aside from being the northern gateway to Death Valley via NV 374.  I stopped in Ryolite first before heading back into California.  Rhyolite is located in Nye County and is basically what Goldfield will probably look like in 50 years.  Rhyolite was founded in 1905 after gold was discovered in the Bull Frog Hills.  Apparently Rhyolite at 5,000 residents by 1908 but that dropped off below 1,000 around 1910.  Power was shut off for good in 1919 and the last people left Rhyolite in 1920.  The rail depot was the last inhabited building which operated as a casino from the 1930s to the 1970s.  Basically there isn't much left of the town unless you really know what to discern from rubble strap pieces. 

[Max Rockatansky]

One last post on with Death Valley.  Coming into California NV 374 terminates and basically becomes Daylight Pass Road.  I stopped at the top to have a look at Death Valley from Hells Gate.  There was plenty of yellow flowers out in bloom but it brought a pretty nasty glut of urbanized traffic.  I took Beatty Road down down to CA 190 and down to Badwater Road to check out the basin:





Coming out of Death Valley I headed west on CA 190 out of Death Valley National Park.  Descending down into Panamint Valley I warped my left front rotor slightly which was NOT what you want happening on an 8% downhill grade with a 60 MPH speed limit.  Basically this is what stopped me from getting more pictures the rest of the day, I was to pissed off.  Anyways Panamint Valley is kind of neat given how much you can really see heading down CA 190...there are some large dunes at the north end.  I cut south on Panamint Valley Road and then on Trona-Wildrose Road.  Trona-Wildrose was reduced to dirt due to construction but it was the good kind that didn't include wash boarding.  Really if you want my opinion rather than this whole crazy notion of crossing the Panamint Range CA 178 should have been planned from the outset to take Trona-Wildrose Road.  Anyways after climbing out of Panamint Valley I entered Trona which basically might be the closest thing to hell that the United States has being a salt mining town in Searles Valley.  I should have stopped to take pictures because I'm not even sure there are many people left around those salt mines.  CA 178 starts just south of Trona which I took into Ridgecrest for the night.

The next morning was a pretty simple drive, basically CA 178 down Walker Pass and Kern River Canyon all the way home to Bakersfield.  In Ridgecrest CA 178 multiplexes a lot of the US 395 BL which if I recall correctly is the old alignment of US 395.  I picked up CA 14 (Old US 6) for a couple miles and dipped down towards Lake Isabella via Walker Pass.  Walker Pass is one of the lower Sierra passes at 5,250 and honestly I would take CA 178 over CA 58 any day of the week if I didn't usually have to go so far out of my way just to avoid traffic.  Kern River Canyon is a 1,500 to 2,000 foot deep canyon that basically runs from the expressway near Lake Isabella west to the Bakersfield city limit.  The road is a lot of fun but apparently it's pretty upsetting to Bakersfield PD given the weekend bikers or crazed drivers love it...DON'T SPEED EXITING THE CANYON...they will get you.  Apparently Kern Canyon is up for consideration on a bypass route for a full four-lane expressway to Lake Isabella.  I haven't heard much about the idea but I suspect I'd be long gone from Bakersfield by the time it ever gets started:



So with that in mind I only have three more road trips to catch up on for 2016 to call this thing current.  Given that two of them were largely involving Old US 66 it will be easy to condense.  Thankfully I had my trip notes handy....that was a lot of work putting together all that stuff for my private CA 49 album.  Good news for me that a Rocky marathon is on which is making this long weekend kind of tolerable.  I'm not usually one for the holiday weekend crowds and even the wife doesn't really want to go out to do something either.

[nexus73]

"Fallout New Vegas" anyone?  Back in the Sixties my future stepmother and her husband used to go antique hunting in deserted Nevada towns, then sell their finds at a small shack on US 101 north of North Bend.  I wonder how much is left to discover?

Once again thank you for the great pix!

Rick

[Max Rockatansky]

Funny I actually picked up a copy of that game a couple years back, that's actually one of my favorites due to the obscure real world desert locations.  I would suspect that I-11 ever really did become a thing between Vegas and Reno then there is going to be an open season on Goldfield, Mina, and Luning when they die out for good.  There was a lot of interesting scrap pieces in Rhyolite but given that's BLM land I just assumed it wasn't okay to take.  I've found some decent treasures out on older abandoned sections of US Highways though; even 66 had some decent oil can finds or car parts. 

[kkt]

Gold was discovered in March of 1848, but there wasn't even telegraph in California then.  News didn't reach the eastern cities until September.  The 49ers were bright enough not to start a transcontinental journey in late fall, so the rush was in '49.

Thanks for the photos!  How busy is CA 49 these days?  Does traffic move at the limit most of the time?

[Max Rockatansky]

Gold was discovered in March of 1848, but there wasn't even telegraph in California then.  News didn't reach the eastern cities until September.  The 49ers were bright enough not to start a transcontinental journey in late fall, so the rush was in '49.

Thanks for the photos!  How busy is CA 49 these days?  Does traffic move at the limit most of the time?

Pretty much except from Jackson past Sutter Creek.  It's actually a really peaceful little jaunt north-bound even on the older alignments of 49.  If I have the time I definitely prefer it to CA 99 given there is much more to explore on CA 49.  It was relatively busy that weekend in terms of tourism to the mountains but I kept moving usually 5-7 MPH above the limit.  I'm hoping that I might be able to make a Ebbetts/Sonora Pass trip here the first week of October which is going to include a bunch of CA 49.

Funny though, CahighwaysGuy posted a link showing lane departure rumble strips were installed in Calaveras County.  That was one of the easier sections of 49 in general which kind of got a laugh out of me.  I couldn't fathom someone picking that route through the night or heavy volumes of traffic...so what's the purpose?

Even still it's pretty interesting to see how many of those towns actually popped up in 1848 in anticipation of the population boom.  Funny to think how many pieces were already in place that made modern California like San Francisco and Sacramento (Sutter's Fort and New Helvetia) already being present by influence of the Spanish or Mexicans.  Even Los Angeles dates back to the 1780s. 

It's pretty interesting to look at the contrast as to why people stayed in California but left Nevada.  At the root of it all it really comes down to is water.  California might not have much rain but it has rain shadowing from the Sierras which led to huge public works projects, fertile valleys, and agriculture that really kept the state going while Nevada basically just died post mining until the Hoover Dam project.

[roadfro]

Max, thanks for sharing your photos and trip experience.

You captured some pics of thing along US 95 in Nevada that I've never really noticed before, in the roughly 15 years I've done drives between Reno and Vegas. I might need to get out of the car more on those trips!

[Max Rockatansky]

Max, thanks for sharing your photos and trip experience.

You captured some pics of thing along US 95 in Nevada that I've never really noticed before, in the roughly 15 years I've done drives between Reno and Vegas. I might need to get out of the car more on those trips!

Sparker actually mentioned in the old alignment thread that there a couple older alignments of US 95 off in the brush between Hawthorne and Beatty that lead back to possibly some mining districts.  I'll have to check into sometime and really see what's back there, might be a service station or two crumbling that's worth a look next time through.  Mid October I'll actually be down in the Vegas area via Pahrump, I'll be mostly on the outlying roads by Red Rock Canyon and Lake Mead. 

[BakoCondors]

Apparently Kern Canyon is up for consideration on a bypass route for a full four-lane expressway to Lake Isabella.  I haven't heard much about the idea but I suspect I'd be long gone from Bakersfield by the time it ever gets started:

There are local maps showing the supposed Kern Canyon bypass going back decades. It was a pipe dream then, it's a pipe dream now.

[Max Rockatansky]

Apparently Kern Canyon is up for consideration on a bypass route for a full four-lane expressway to Lake Isabella.  I haven't heard much about the idea but I suspect I'd be long gone from Bakersfield by the time it ever gets started:

There are local maps showing the supposed Kern Canyon bypass going back decades. It was a pipe dream then, it's a pipe dream now.

I'll believe it when the CA 178 freeway connects to 99....    CA 204 always adequate for that task....granted I say the former statement with a lot of sarcasm.  Granted it would be interesting in the winter to head back up to Lake Isabella to see what road ruins can be found on the lake bottom given how low it is right now.

[sdmichael]

I'll believe it when the CA 178 freeway connects to 99....    CA 204 always adequate for that task....granted I say the former statement with a lot of sarcasm.  Granted it would be interesting in the winter to head back up to Lake Isabella to see what road ruins can be found on the lake bottom given how low it is right now.

A friend of mine already did when the lake was lower and took photos - http://socalregion.com/out-of-the-lake-old-highway-178-and-the-town-of-isabella/

[kkt]

Yes, it's water... agriculture, gardens.  Also California having ports and a more pleasant climate.

Nevada still has some mineral wealth, even though they've gotten what can be got cheaply and easily.  Nevada should have wanted the nuclear waste depository, that would be a source of decent jobs forever that don't depend on tourists or being the only place with gambling and prostitution.