Skip to main content

Ice Cream Grade

By
While in the Southern Santa Cruz Mountains I encountered oddly named mountain road known as the Ice Cream Grade.


The Ice Cream Grade is an approximately 2.7 mile roadway in Santa Cruz County connecting Pine Flat Road eastward to Empire Grade/Felton-Empire Road.  The origin of the name "Ice Cream Grade" may have been due to ice cream socials being used to fund the roadway.  Apparently the Ice Cream Grade appeared as presently named in 1899 in public documents .

Ice Cream Grade Santa Cruz Wiki

The Ice Cream Grade does appears as an unmarked roadway between Pine Flat Road the Empire Grade on the 1935 California Divisions of Highways Map of Santa Cruz County.

1935 Santa Cruz County Highway Map 

Regarding my drive on Ice Cream Grade I started from Pine Flat Road headed east.  The Ice Cream Grade is immediately signed with "Icy" advisory signs.  Considering the elevation on the Ice Cream Grade is somewhat low I can only assume someone had a sense of humor placing a somewhat ironic sign.


Commercial loads over 10,000 pounds are prohibited on Ice Cream Grade.


The alignment of the Ice Cream Grade is very haggard and alternates between two-lane to one-lane.  The Ice Cream Grade crosses Laguna Creek about mid-way between Pine Flat Road and Empire Grade before climbing a large hill.









The Ice Cream Grade ends at Empire Grade.  The road continues eastward as Felton-Empire Road through the Fall Creek unit of Henry Cowell State Park.


I'm honestly surprised that the street blades are so large and displayed so prominently on both ends of the Ice Cream Grade.  The unique name would tend make me think they are the target of signage theft.  The remote terrain probably deters most would be thieves.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Abandoned Fowler Avenue in Clovis, California

By
Originally Fowler Avenue in the city of Clovis had a brief discontinuation approaching Herndon Avenue.  Fowler Avenue traffic heading northbound was required to detour briefly onto westbound Herndon Avenue.  During 2001 this discontinuation was removed when Fowler Avenue was reconfigured to access the Sierra Freeway (California State Route 168) via an interchange.  This led to a segment of the original alignment of Fowler Avenue just south of Herndon Avenue to be abandoned.  Despite a shopping center opening over part of the original Fowler Avenue alignment in 2016 much of the abandoned roadway remains.   The history of the abandoned original alignment of Fowler Avenue in Clovis The original alignment of California State Route 168 departed downtown Clovis eastbound along Tollhouse Road.  This original alignment did not interact with Fowler Avenue at the Herndon Avenue intersection.  Fowler Avenue north of Tollhouse Road ran north to Herndon Avenue...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hot Springs Drive (Tulare County Mountain Road 56)

By
Hot Springs Drive is an approximately twenty-mile rural highway in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Tulare County.  The Hot Springs Drive corridor begins at Old Stage Road at Fountain Springs and extends eastward to Parker Pass Road near California Hot Springs.  Hot Springs Drive is carried by Tulare County Mountain Road 56 and acts as an extension of Avenue 56 (Tulare County Route J22).   What is now California Hot Springs originated as the Deer Creek Hot Springs Resort in 1882.  The resort on Deer Creek was originally served by a Control Road which required traffic alternate at different times of the day.  The modern California Hot Springs resort would incorporate in 1905 following an ownership change.  The Control Road corridor was replaced by Hot Springs Drive around 1915 which intended to serve increasing amount of automotive traffic to California Hot Springs.  Much of the resort would later burn in 1968 but was rebuilt in the 1980s. ...
Post a Comment
Read more