CA 88

[Max Rockatansky]

Went through my old photos and I had enough to put together something for the majority of CA 88 along with the route history:

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/07/california-state-route-88-carson-pass.html

Two thing weren't clear while I was researching the alignment history of CA 88:

1.  It appears that the original alignment through Jackson used Main Street, Water Street, and Court Street.  When was the modern Sutter Street alignment built west of downtown?
2.  Early maps from the Division of Highways really lend suggestion that Red Vista Road south of Red Lake is the original routing on the descent from Carson Pass.  If that's the case when did the alignment end up shifting north of Red Lake?  I know there a ton of old dirt alignments approaching the Nevada State Line so I imagine there is something to this.

[sparker]

I've always found CA 88 to be the most efficient way to get from my home territory of San Jose up to either Tahoe or Reno (except possibly in the dead of winter).  Very nice road if you don't get stuck behind a "road boulder" RV (it could use a few more passing lanes; some folks just don't seem to understand the concept of turnouts!).   Always thought that of all the cross-Sierra routes, it would be the most logical to multilane at some future point. 

Most of the "mother lode" town strung out along CA 49 originally featured convoluted state highway routings through their downtown/"old town" sections, either on 49 itself and/or one of the intersecting routes.  Reading old issues of CH&PW seemed to indicate that several of these towns fought the state highway relocations that commenced in the '50's tooth and nail in order to preserve their status as functional tourist destinations; but once delivery trucks increased in both size and number during that same period, the towns started to accept the route revisions as grudgingly necessary.  Ironically (but not surprisingly) once the highways were relocated a matter of a few blocks distant from the historical town centers, the on-street parking situation improved dramatically, and, with proper signage, tourist dollars started flowing in better than ever.   

[Max Rockatansky]

I've always found CA 88 to be the most efficient way to get from my home territory of San Jose up to either Tahoe or Reno (except possibly in the dead of winter).  Very nice road if you don't get stuck behind a "road boulder" RV (it could use a few more passing lanes; some folks just don't seem to understand the concept of turnouts!).   Always thought that of all the cross-Sierra routes, it would be the most logical to multilane at some future point. 

Most of the "mother lode" town strung out along CA 49 originally featured convoluted state highway routings through their downtown/"old town" sections, either on 49 itself and/or one of the intersecting routes.  Reading old issues of CH&PW seemed to indicate that several of these towns fought the state highway relocations that commenced in the '50's tooth and nail in order to preserve their status as functional tourist destinations; but once delivery trucks increased in both size and number during that same period, the towns started to accept the route revisions as grudgingly necessary.  Ironically (but not surprisingly) once the highways were relocated a matter of a few blocks distant from the historical town centers, the on-street parking situation improved dramatically, and, with proper signage, tourist dollars started flowing in better than ever.

In that regard I've always been surprised that 49 never was shifted out of downtown Sonora and Placerville.  Sonora is a little more forgiving terrain wise but you are in the thick of the city driving on 49, there are some really awful back ups in places.  49 still uses the massive 13% downhill grade on Sacramento Street to downtown Placerville, that must be "fun" even in a box truck:

IMG_0174 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

But that said most of the previous alignments are easy enough to figure out by just looking at maps.  Jackson seems to be the one that had the strangest alignment given all the sudden 90 degree turns 49 and 88 would have had to take.  San Andreas and Mokelumne Hill seemed to have oddly shaped early routings, that must have weird to see multiplex signage for 49/8 in the latter.

[sparker]

Yeah -- as the original SSR 8 intersected SSR 49 from the west in Mokelumne Hill and then multiplexed north to Jackson on that route in order to then head east across Carson Pass in the original numbering iteration, there must have been multiple 8/49 arrays along the 7-8-mile stretch between the two towns -- particularly when the route twisted and turned in the towns themselves.  Even after SSR 8 was replaced by 88 over Carson Pass in the late '30's, the multiplex with 49 persisted until the 1964 renumbering.  After that CA 26 initially terminated at CA 49; it was later extended up the hill to West Point.  For a while in the '70's and early '80's, an outflung section of CA 104 was signed from CA 88 SE to West Point (26 and 104 had a mutual terminus there); that section was later redesignated as the east end of CA 26.     

[Max Rockatansky]

Took CA 88 over Carson Pass today from CA 49 to CA 89 and cut a new photo album.  Had a minor slush of flurries starting to come down at Carson Pass:

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmoLwVeh

[Max Rockatansky]

Made some heavy updates to my previous CA 88 blog with lots of new photos of the highway from CA 49 to CA 89:

https://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/2018/07/california-state-route-88-carson-pass.html