Skip to main content

Yokohl Valley Drive/Mountain Route 296 and Signed County Route J37 sign find

By
Back in March the Sierras were clearing up finally after a rough winter and I decided to hit a road I wanted to always try; Yokohl Valley Drive.






Yokohl Valley Road/Mountain Route 296 is a 23 mile road in the Sierra Nevada Range in Tulare County.  Yokohl Valley Road has a north terminus at CA 198 and gradually winds through the foothills and lower mountains in a southeasterly direction to reach County Route J37.  Yokohl Valley Road is extremely narrow but manages to maintain a center stripe for the duration of the route.  There is a couple large hairpins in addition to a large grade that ascends to approximately 2,700 feet above sea level a couple miles north of the J37 junction.  I'm unsure on how old Yokohl Valley Road is but it does appear as a county maintained roadway in 1935 on a Tulare County Highway Map.

I started out on Yokohl Valley Drive from CA 198 in the village of Yokohl and headed southward towards J37.  Most rural mountain roads in Tulare County have a Mountain Route number and Yokohl Valley Drive is not exception being assigned with MTN 296.





The asphalt quality on Yokohl Valley Drive quickly drops off south of CA 198.





About the only semi-significant junction on Yokohl Valley Drive is Road 228 which traverses towards Lindsay.  Yokohl Valley Drive begins to follow Yokohl Creek from Road 228 east towards the Sierras.





The views of the Sierras is fantastic after a winter storm.





Pretty soon Yokohl Valley Drive begins to ascend into the Sierras.  The roadway is somewhat straight but it doesn't last too long.















There is a stern warning to trucks buses to not continue as Yokohl Valley Road rises above 1,000 feet.





The grade Yokohl Valley road travels is pretty big and tops out at a summit of about 3,000 feet above sea level.  There is one hard hairpin curve and several other smaller ones.  The view looking back at the road you just climbed near the top puts the height of the climb in stark relief.










Yokohl Valley Drive descends down to J37 on much softer grades.  The roadway is pretty rough but something I didn't consider to be too difficult.









At the end of Yokohl Valley Drive the road meets J37.  I actually found a surprise I wasn't expecting, Signed County Route J37 was actually signed!






I've never found any of the Signed County Routes in Tulare County aside from J37 to actually be signed, I was actually shocked to see shields.  J37 begins at Springdale and traverses 25.17 miles northeast to Mount Home State Forest which is a large grove of Sequoia Redwoods.  Balch Park Road appears to be very old in design and appears on County Highway Maps in 1937.  There is at least one bridge from 1927 over Sycamore Creek which may suggest that was when the route was built.  The J37 designation was assigned in 1975 and was one of the later Signed County Routes to be designated.













Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2018 Mojave Road Trip Part 2; The deadly desert highway (California State Route 127 and Nevada State Route 373)

By
After leaving Barstow via Old Highway 58 my next destination was in Death Valley.  To access Death Valley from rural San Bernardino County required a trek on north on Interstate 15 to California State Route 127 which becomes Nevada State Route 373 at the state line. Along I-15 I encountered the road sign oddity that is Zzyzx Road about eight miles south of Baker.   Zzyzx Road is a four mile road that used to go to the Zzyzx Mineral Springs and Health Spa.   The spa was founded in the 1940s and the owner made up the name "Zzyzx" to claim it was the last word in the English Language.  The spa has been shut down since the 1970s and is now part of a Desert Studies Center for California State University. The southern terminus of CA 127 in Baker is located at I-15 exit 246.  CA 127 is a 91 mile north/south highway which runs to the Nevada State Line in Inyo County.  CA 127 is called Death Valley Road from I-15 northward.  South of CA 127 ...
4 comments
Read more

Finding the Pre-Emption Road of New York State

By
  The Pre-Emption Road (or rather a series of roads named Pre-Emption Road) follows a survey line called the Pre-Emption Line, drawn in the early days of the United States. The story begins with Massachusetts and New York having competing land claims to modern day Western New York State that have their roots in colonial charters granted by the British. After the Revolutionary War ended, this land became the frontier of the nation and its settlement became a priority for the new American government. During this era, there were a lot of competing land claims that needed to be settled. It was no different with the land claims between New York State and Massachusetts. On November 30, 1786, Massachusetts and New York sent representatives to Hartford, Connecticut to resolve their competing land claims. In less than three weeks, the representatives had reached a compromise. Massachusetts would receive pre-emption rights, meaning the right to sell the land after the Indian title ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What's In a Name?: When the Roads Really Do Tell a Story

By
  Our tagline on the Gribblenation blog is "because every road tells a story". Some roads tell different stories than others. Along our travels, we may see historic markers that tell us a little story about the roads we travel or the places we pass by. Some historic markers are more general, as to telling us who lived where or what old trail traversed between two towns. During my travels across New York State and other states or provinces, I pass by many historic markers, some with interesting or amusing references to roads. I wanted to highlight a few of the markers I've seen along my travels around the Empire State and help tell their stories. Those stories may be as specific as explaining the tales of a tree that was used to help measure a distance of eight miles from Bath to Avoca in Steuben County, as referenced on the Eight Mile Tree historical marker above. They may also help point the way along historical roads first used centuries ago, or may help tell a local l...
Post a Comment
Read more