New Priest Grade/CA 120 and Old Priest Grade

[Max Rockatansky]

One of our longest worst ommissions from the Gribblenation blog series regarding California Highways was not having a standalone blog on the Priest Grades, that has now been corrected.  Depicted as the blog cover is a westward view along the descent on Old Priest Grade Road of Tuolumne County, California.  Below Old Priest Grade Road one can observe California State Route 120 across Grizzly Gulch on New Priest Grade Road.  Old Priest Grade Road is often claimed to have a maximum gradient of 17-20% and is one of the steepest roadways in the western Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

What is new Old Priest Grade Road opened in 1859 as an alternate to Wards Ferry Road between Sonora and the Big Oak Flat-Groveland area.  New Priest Grade Road was completed in 1913 as a replacement for what is now Old Priest Grade Road.  New Priest Grade Road features a sustained gradient slightly exceeding 5% but is two and a half times longer than Old Priest Grade Road.  New Priest Grade Road was added to the State Highway System by way of 1915 Legislative Chapters 396 and became part of California State Route 120 during August 1934.  New Priest Grade Road was once part of a 1935 proposal to extend US Route 6 over the Sierra Nevada Mountains about Tioga Pass.  During the 1960s the Priest Grades were almost replaced by a freeway corridor.  A full historical time of the Priest Grades can be found in the blog link below. 

https://www.gribblenation.org/2022/07/california-state-route-120new-priest.html?m=1