Parker Pass Road (Tulare County Mountain Road 50)

[Max Rockatansky]

Parker Pass Road is a rural highway located in the Sierra Nevada range of Tulare County.  As the name suggests, this 19-mile-long corridor crosses the 6,443-foot-high Parker Pass.  Parker Pass Road is maintained as Tulare County Mountain Road 50 and begins at Hot Springs Drive (Tulare County Mountain Road 56) in California Hot Springs.  The highway crosses a series of switchbacks and terminates near the community of Johnsondale at Kern River Highway (Tulare County Mountain Road 99).

Parker Pass Road was completed in 1935 to permit automotive traffic to reach Johnsondale by way of California Hot Springs.  Johnsondale was originally plotted as a Mountain Whitney Lumber Company owned town to house workers.  The community would remain an active company logging town until operations shuttered in 1979 and it was sold to private investors.

https://www.gribblenation.org/2026/02/parker-pass-road-tulare-county-mountain.html?m=1

[Quillz]

I've done this drive a few times, but actually had no idea the name of the road. It's an alternative to CA-190 for me, since I come from the south so it's a quicker way to reach Sherman Pass.