Truncation of CA-168 in Fish Lake Valley

[Quillz]

I don't fully understand why this happened in 1986.

The simple explanation seems to be that either California or Nevada wanted the same number across state lines. But with the exception of CA-28, I don't think any other California state route keeps its number when crossing into Nevada. So why specifically was there a desire to have CA-266 be extended? Were there similar requests to renumber CA-167 and CA-182, and those requests were turned down?

And when that happened, then why didn't the northern part of CA-266 get renumbered to 264 and match the other Nevada route in the area? Was there perhaps a desire to have a single number run south-north through the mostly south-north Fish Lake Valley?

I always thought renumbering CA-168 was a bit strange here. Nevada's current system was set up in 1976, yet it was a decade before the change happened. It just seemed like an odd time to make the change.

[Max Rockatansky]

If Nevada wanted a continuous highway 266 they should have just done it during the 1976 Renumbering.  What became NV 264 could have been NV 266 from the get go. 

[US 395]

I've wondered that too. No idea on the logic behind it but with CA 266 matching with NV 266, it would've been better to have NV 264 also be 266.

CA 88 carries its number into NV as NV 88. So it would be two routes.

[Voyager]

168 is such an interesting route because while it obviously was "intended" to connect via the Piute Pass, I haven't been able to find any actual highway maps that show this (along with 203 from Mammoth through Devils Postpile). Only 190 actually had route lines over the Olancha Pass (if anyone has any David Rumsey collection proof I'm wrong, please let me know, I've always tried to figure out where 168 would have gone after the transition to Kaiser Pass Road).

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 190 was mostly built before as Horseshoe Meadows Road before the adopted alignment changed from Mulky Pass.  I'd argue the Kern River Fault would have been less of a challenge than the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.   

CA 168 was a Forest Service planned project.  You can more or less see a projection of where the highway would have been via the northern boundary or Kings Canyon National Park set in 1940. 

CA 203 west of Minaret Summit never really got off the ground before it met resistance.  The extension of was never codified and there was never an alignment adoption.  Sierra National Forest Route 81 functionally is an incomplete analog for the corridor. 

[Quillz]

168 is such an interesting route because while it obviously was "intended" to connect via the Piute Pass, I haven't been able to find any actual highway maps that show this (along with 203 from Mammoth through Devils Postpile). Only 190 actually had route lines over the Olancha Pass (if anyone has any David Rumsey collection proof I'm wrong, please let me know, I've always tried to figure out where 168 would have gone after the transition to Kaiser Pass Road).

The original routing was Fresno to the Nevada state line via Montgomery Pass. In other words, CA-168 utilized what is today US-6 from Bishop to the border. This was changed in 1938, and it seems CA-168 just ended in Bishop until the Westward Pass segment was signed in 1964.

However, you're correct. This is the only trans-Sierra routing that never seems to have had even a proposed alignment, which should tell you a lot about the geography of the area. The fact it kept one number suggests there were at least cursory plans, but didn't even get as far "lines on a piece of paper."

[Voyager]

168 is such an interesting route because while it obviously was "intended" to connect via the Piute Pass, I haven't been able to find any actual highway maps that show this (along with 203 from Mammoth through Devils Postpile). Only 190 actually had route lines over the Olancha Pass (if anyone has any David Rumsey collection proof I'm wrong, please let me know, I've always tried to figure out where 168 would have gone after the transition to Kaiser Pass Road).

The original routing was Fresno to the Nevada state line via Montgomery Pass. In other words, CA-168 utilized what is today US-6 from Bishop to the border. This was changed in 1938, and it seems CA-168 just ended in Bishop until the Westward Pass segment was signed in 1964.

However, you're correct. This is the only trans-Sierra routing that never seems to have had even a proposed alignment, which should tell you a lot about the geography of the area. The fact it kept one number suggests there were at least cursory plans, but didn't even get as far "lines on a piece of paper."

Honestly Piute Pass is really doable - I've hiked it before. You can even drive up to North Lake (famous for the High Sierra Apple Wallpaper) and that road could easily be upgraded to 2 lanes and fully paved. From North Lake (about 10,000ft) and over the Pass (around 11,500 feet) and back down to Florence Lake (about 9-10k high) isn't really that drastic of an elevation change.

[Quillz]

168 is such an interesting route because while it obviously was "intended" to connect via the Piute Pass, I haven't been able to find any actual highway maps that show this (along with 203 from Mammoth through Devils Postpile). Only 190 actually had route lines over the Olancha Pass (if anyone has any David Rumsey collection proof I'm wrong, please let me know, I've always tried to figure out where 168 would have gone after the transition to Kaiser Pass Road).

The original routing was Fresno to the Nevada state line via Montgomery Pass. In other words, CA-168 utilized what is today US-6 from Bishop to the border. This was changed in 1938, and it seems CA-168 just ended in Bishop until the Westward Pass segment was signed in 1964.

However, you're correct. This is the only trans-Sierra routing that never seems to have had even a proposed alignment, which should tell you a lot about the geography of the area. The fact it kept one number suggests there were at least cursory plans, but didn't even get as far "lines on a piece of paper."

Honestly Piute Pass is really doable - I've hiked it before. You can even drive up to North Lake (famous for the High Sierra Apple Wallpaper) and that road could easily be upgraded to 2 lanes and fully paved. From North Lake (about 10,000ft) and over the Pass (around 11,500 feet) and back down to Florence Lake (about 9-10k high) isn't really that drastic of an elevation change.

Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should.

I've commented before that the 1934 numbering scheme was still very much a product of the early 20th century "man has conquered nature" mind set. Lines would be drawn on maps and we'd figure out later how to do it. By the latter half of the 20th century, we had environmentalism and environmental impact reviews and a stronger focus on conservation. This doomed a lot of trans-Sierra crossings for better or for worse. The so-called wilderness gap was closed in the 1980s and this pretty much guarantees you won't see any completion of CA-168 in our lifetimes.

CA-190 is "complete" if you just utilize Sherman Pass Highway. You come out farther south than Olancha but from a navigation standpoint, you start in Quaking Aspen, crest at Sherman Pass, end up at the 395. I think of this an unsigned 190.

[Voyager]

168 is such an interesting route because while it obviously was "intended" to connect via the Piute Pass, I haven't been able to find any actual highway maps that show this (along with 203 from Mammoth through Devils Postpile). Only 190 actually had route lines over the Olancha Pass (if anyone has any David Rumsey collection proof I'm wrong, please let me know, I've always tried to figure out where 168 would have gone after the transition to Kaiser Pass Road).

The original routing was Fresno to the Nevada state line via Montgomery Pass. In other words, CA-168 utilized what is today US-6 from Bishop to the border. This was changed in 1938, and it seems CA-168 just ended in Bishop until the Westward Pass segment was signed in 1964.

However, you're correct. This is the only trans-Sierra routing that never seems to have had even a proposed alignment, which should tell you a lot about the geography of the area. The fact it kept one number suggests there were at least cursory plans, but didn't even get as far "lines on a piece of paper."

Honestly Piute Pass is really doable - I've hiked it before. You can even drive up to North Lake (famous for the High Sierra Apple Wallpaper) and that road could easily be upgraded to 2 lanes and fully paved. From North Lake (about 10,000ft) and over the Pass (around 11,500 feet) and back down to Florence Lake (about 9-10k high) isn't really that drastic of an elevation change.

Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should.

I've commented before that the 1934 numbering scheme was still very much a product of the early 20th century "man has conquered nature" mind set. Lines would be drawn on maps and we'd figure out later how to do it. By the latter half of the 20th century, we had environmentalism and environmental impact reviews and a stronger focus on conservation. This doomed a lot of trans-Sierra crossings for better or for worse. The so-called wilderness gap was closed in the 1980s and this pretty much guarantees you won't see any completion of CA-168 in our lifetimes.

CA-190 is "complete" if you just utilize Sherman Pass Highway. You come out farther south than Olancha but from a navigation standpoint, you start in Quaking Aspen, crest at Sherman Pass, end up at the 395. I think of this an unsigned 190.

190 itself from Quaking Aspen over Olancha Pass is still legislatively signed right? I remember seeing it was never deleted, despite the fact that it will likely never happen - even Walker Pass has such low traffic its barely justified.

[Quillz]

168 is such an interesting route because while it obviously was "intended" to connect via the Piute Pass, I haven't been able to find any actual highway maps that show this (along with 203 from Mammoth through Devils Postpile). Only 190 actually had route lines over the Olancha Pass (if anyone has any David Rumsey collection proof I'm wrong, please let me know, I've always tried to figure out where 168 would have gone after the transition to Kaiser Pass Road).

The original routing was Fresno to the Nevada state line via Montgomery Pass. In other words, CA-168 utilized what is today US-6 from Bishop to the border. This was changed in 1938, and it seems CA-168 just ended in Bishop until the Westward Pass segment was signed in 1964.

However, you're correct. This is the only trans-Sierra routing that never seems to have had even a proposed alignment, which should tell you a lot about the geography of the area. The fact it kept one number suggests there were at least cursory plans, but didn't even get as far "lines on a piece of paper."

Honestly Piute Pass is really doable - I've hiked it before. You can even drive up to North Lake (famous for the High Sierra Apple Wallpaper) and that road could easily be upgraded to 2 lanes and fully paved. From North Lake (about 10,000ft) and over the Pass (around 11,500 feet) and back down to Florence Lake (about 9-10k high) isn't really that drastic of an elevation change.

Just because we can do it doesn't mean we should.

I've commented before that the 1934 numbering scheme was still very much a product of the early 20th century "man has conquered nature" mind set. Lines would be drawn on maps and we'd figure out later how to do it. By the latter half of the 20th century, we had environmentalism and environmental impact reviews and a stronger focus on conservation. This doomed a lot of trans-Sierra crossings for better or for worse. The so-called wilderness gap was closed in the 1980s and this pretty much guarantees you won't see any completion of CA-168 in our lifetimes.

CA-190 is "complete" if you just utilize Sherman Pass Highway. You come out farther south than Olancha but from a navigation standpoint, you start in Quaking Aspen, crest at Sherman Pass, end up at the 395. I think of this an unsigned 190.

190 itself from Quaking Aspen over Olancha Pass is still legislatively signed right? I remember seeing it was never deleted, despite the fact that it will likely never happen - even Walker Pass has such low traffic its barely justified.

Yes, there is still an official proposal to cross the Sierra, even though it will never be built. And since Caltrans only signed routes they maintain, it means the obvious Sherman Pass connection is not signed as 190, even though for all practical purposes it should be.

Nearly all the routes with gaps still have official proposals: 96, 178, 162, etc. Some have drivable alternates, some are fully unconstructed.

[pderocco]

The California Official maps show the road now connecting to NV-264 as CA-266 from 1966 to the mid 80s, but at that time the road in Nevada was called NV-3A. The road now connecting to NV-266 was part of CA-168, but the road in Nevada was called NV-3. So what I don't understand is why Nevada changed 3A to 264 instead of 266, since that road was already 266 in California. Then they could have used 264 for the continuation of 168, and California wouldn't have had to change anything.

[Max Rockatansky]

What is now NV 266 ended at CA 168 whereas NV 264 ended at CA 266.  Why Nevada just didn't use 266 and 168 instead during 1976 is anyone's guess. 

[roadfro]

What is now NV 266 ended at CA 168 whereas NV 264 ended at CA 266.  Why Nevada just didn't use 266 and 168 instead during 1976 is anyone's guess.

168 would not have fit with the county-based numbering scheme used in Nevada's renumbering. NV 168 was assigned in Clark County.

But the 264/266 part is an interesting question. Given that Nevada did opt for some matching with California in the new system despite the scheme (SR 28 & SR 88), it's odd they wouldn't have matched this up. I hadn't thought about this before, not realizing the history on the CA side.