La Paloma Road closure in Merced County

[Max Rockatansky]

Ever since I've moved back to the West Coast La Paloma Road in Merced County a short distance east of Main Canal and Snelling Road has been closed to traffic.  This gravel roadway turns into Hornitos Road in Mariposa County and is open on that side of the county line.  Signage on the closure gates for La Paloma Road indicate it to be "impassable."  The Merced County Road Page offers no insight or lists La Paloma as a long-term closure:

https://www.countyofmerced.com/801/Road-Closures-Delays

Interestingly Mariposa County has some background information on La Paloma Road being problematic.   Apparently, Mariposa County circa 1997 was interested in having Merced County improve La Paloma Road so it could be open all year.  The hook seems to be permitting improved access to the UC Merced campus for Mariposa County residents.

https://ca-mariposacounty.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/49665/Resolution_1997-150?bidId=

[Max Rockatansky]

Apparently, Merced County concluded in 2001 that the location of UC Merced would not in any way impact Mariposa County.  Mariposa County was rather blunt in their response, particularly regarding leaving La Paloma Road unimproved:

https://www.mariposacounty.org/DocumentCenter/View/41269/Resolution_2001-274?bidId=

[Max Rockatansky]

I checked out both ends of the Merced County closure on La Paloma Road.  It seems Merced County is hiding away a gem of a dirt road:

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCb6Rg

This view is facing east from Snelling Road at the western closure gate on La Paloma Road.  Seems a couple folks have done their work to the signage with a shotgun:

IMG_7479 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

The Mariposa County owned section of La Paloma Road is open from Hornitos Road west to the Merced County line.  Mariposa County is usually pretty diligent at maintain grades of dirt/gravel roadways and this was no exception.  Signage indicates only 1.6 miles of road as pretty accessible.  The Merced County placard seems to have been present from whenever one could pass through to Snelling Road:

IMG_7834 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_7836 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

IMG_7854 by Max Rockatansky, on Flickr

[pderocco]

If you zoom way in on Google Maps, you can see some faint property lines along both sides of most of the road, except for the easternmost 1.7 miles from Hornitos Rd to a ranch building and a gate. That might imply that those 1.7 miles are part of the surrounding ranch land and therefore private, and the owners put up a gate because they were tired of trespassers, while the rest is still technically public, and the county put up a gate because it really isn't a through road. Of course, I take lines on Google Maps with a truckload of salt.

[Max Rockatansky]

From what I'm gathering out of this the closure was probably done by Merced County to stop people from using La Paloma Road to get to U.C. Merced.  Elsewhere in the county they have often closed dirt road segments rather than perform repairs (parts of Santa Fe Grade come to mind).  For whatever reason Merced County can't seem to be able to maintain dirt roads when all the surrounding counties are pretty decent at it. 

Then again Merced County can't even seem to get Phase 1B of Atwater-Merced Expressways full funded.  What chance does La Paloma Road stand when the main highway planned for U.C. Merced continues to get stuck in development hell?

I put this all on the GN Facebook page tonight.  Sometimes I get lucky and someone has extra insight regarding stuff like weird closures or obscure road history.

[Max Rockatansky]

This was more interesting to dig into than I initially thought.  Turns out Mariposa County was serious about having La Paloma Road added as the easternmost part of the Atwater-Merced Expressway.  The EIR about the project completely cut them out of getting any serious consideration.  Rather than keep the road open and see what happened after the UC Merced campus opened Merced County elected to just close it.  On Facebook someone shared a story about the Mariposa County road commissioner getting super pissed over this and demanding the closure gate keys from someone in Merced County.  Anyways, I put this to blog form:

https://www.gribblenation.org/2025/04/la-paloma-road-merced-county-and.html?m=1