Ruth Hill Road (Old CA 180)

[Max Rockatansky]

When California State Route 180 was commissioned in August 1934 the alignment in took in Sierra Nevada range was very different than from today.  The original highway alignment from Squaw Valley (now Yokuts Valley) to east Grant Grove (then part of General Grant National Park) originally followed what is now Ruth Hill Road, Dunlap Road, Pinehurst Road (modern California State Route 245), Dark Canyon Road (partially now Forest Road 14S45).  After funding fell through for the planned Kings Canyon Road the was corridor eventually picked up as a 30-mile-long cooperative project between the Division of Highways and Federal Government.  The current alignment of California State Route 180 bypassing Squaw Valley and Dunlap was complete by 1941.

Ruth Hill Road has carried numerous names through the years.  The corridor often appears on older maps as Old Dunlap Road or the Squaw Valley Grade.  The corridor is named after the approximately 2,600-foot-high Ruth Hill. 

Modern Ruth Hill Road is entirely paved but has numerous single lane grades which approach an incline of 10%.  The Ruth Hill corridor coupled with nearby Dunlap Road act as good analogs for what early State Highways in the western Sierra Nevada were once like.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2025/06/ruth-hill-road-early-california-state.html?m=1