Skip to main content

Fault Line Friday; Weird San Andreas Fault Roads between CA 198/25 and CA 41/46

By
Back in March I had a look at some of the weird roadways along the San Andreas Fault between the junction of CA 198/41 south to CA 46/41.  Specifically I traveled on; Peach Tree Road, Indian Valley Road, Slacks Canyon Road, Vineyard Canyon Road, and Cholame Road.  I started the day out by driving west on CA 198 to the overlook in the Diablos above Peach Tree Valley.  Peach Tree Valley is the boundary line between the Diablo and Gabilan Ranges which are bisected by the San Andreas Fault.


CA 198 drops sharply westbound out of the Diablos to a junction with CA 25 and Peach Tree Road.



Peach Tree Road has a center stripe and is two lanes for the first couple miles south off of CA 198 but that drops a very narrow single lane very quickly.



There is actually a couple interesting overviews of Slack Canyon that are worth stopping for.


Earlier this year Peach Tree Road was shut down while this new bridge was being put in.  The Google Street Vehicle shows the older bridge which looked to be pretty substantially narrow by comparison.



Peach Tree Road terminates here at the junction of Slacks Canyon Road and Indian Valley Road.  For whatever reason Slacks Canyon Road is been gated off and shows being that way pretty much on every GSV screen shot I looked at.  It looks like the Fault continues via Slacks Canyon Road, maybe that along with the lack of pavement was why it was closed? 



Indian Valley Road continues directly south and begins to rise through the Gabilan Range roughly to about 2,200 feet above sea level.


At the summit Indian Valley begins to drop elevation fast, I would say that this is the only section of any of the roads I traveled that had a "mountain road" feel to it.






Gradually Indian Valley Road levels out at about I want to say 1,400 feet, the descent from here on out was much more gentle.


Approaching Valleton and San Miguel there are increasing signs of residential habitation, by this point I still had not encountered another car.  I encountered seven south from this point to Vineyard Canyon Road.


Some nice bridge work near Big Sandy Road.


At the junction of Indian Valley Road and Hare Canyon Road is a community called Valleton.  Really it isn't really much of anything aside from ranch lands and a couple stray abandoned old homes.  Supposedly there was a post office here from the 1880s to almost 1920s, seems like it more or less a real place at one point.


By the time I hit junction with Hare Canyon Road I had traveled 27 miles south from CA 198.


South of Hare Canyon the roadway on Indian Valley begins to widen and basically it becomes somewhat a normal width.


 Eventually US 101 can be seen right before hitting the San Luis Obispo County Line.



 37 miles in I took an eastward swing on Vineyard Canyon Road.


 Vineyard Canyon Road is substantially wider and what I'd expect out of a modern roadway.


 Surprisingly the summit on Vineyard Canyon is pretty high at about 2,500 feet above sea level.


Approaching Slack Canyon Road and the San Andreas Fault there is some more interesting bridge work, I'm not sure what is up with the brown street blades.



The last five miles south to Parkfield-Coalinga Road and Cholame Road are pretty bland, I did make a stop in Parkfield for breakfast.


I did the rest of the Parkfield Grade from CA 198 in 2016, it is actually a pretty cool road.  The creek below is the actual fault line and there is a bow in the bridge that is obvious from outside the car.  I believe Parkfield has been around since the 1850s, there are less than 20 residents supposedly left in the town.  Parkfield is mostly known for being the most seismically active place in the Continental United States.







CA 46/41 is 17 miles of Parkfield via Cholame Road.


Cholame Road has some pretty nice single lane bridges and wide views before terminating at CA 41/46.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I-40 rockslide uncovers old debates on highway

By
The Asheville Citizen-Times continues to do a great job covering all the angles of the Interstate 40 Haywood County rock slide. An article in Sunday's edition provides a strong historical perspective on how the Pigeon River routing of Interstate 40 came about. And perhaps most strikingly, in an article that ran just prior to the highway's opening in the fall of 1968, how engineers from both Tennessee and North Carolina warned "...that slides would probably be a major problem along the route for many years." On February 12, 1969, not long after the Interstate opened, the first rock slide that would close I-40 occurred. Like many other Interstates within North Carolina, Interstate 40 through the mountains has a history prior to formation of the Interstate Highway System and was also a heated political battle between local communities. The discussion for a road that would eventually become Interstate 40 dates back to the 1940's as the idea for interregional high
2 comments
Read more

Former California State Route 41 past Bates Station

By
When California State Route 41 was commissioned during August 1934 it was aligned along the then existing Fresno-Yosemite Road north of the San Joaquin River.  Within the Sierra Nevada foothills of Madera County, the original highway alignment ran past Bates Station via what is now Madera County Road 209, part of eastern Road 406 and Road 207.   Bates Station was a stage station plotted during the early 1880s at what was the intersection of the Coarsegold Road and Stockton-Los Angeles Road.   The modern alignment bypassing Bates Station to the east would be reopened to traffic during late 1939.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 41 past Bates Station Bates Station was featured as one of the many 1875-1899 Madera County era towns in the May 21, 1968, Madera Tribune .  Post Office Service at Bates Station is noted to have been established on November 23, 1883 and ran continuously until October 31, 1903.  The postal name was sourced from Bates Station owner/operator George Ba
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 210 the Foothill Freeway

By
The combined Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor of the Foothill Freeway is approximately 85.31-miles.  The Interstate 210/California State Route 210 corridor begins at Interstate 5 at the northern outskirts of Los Angeles and travels east to Interstate 10 in Redlands of San Bernardino County.  Interstate 210 is presently signed on the 44.9-mile segment of the Foothill Freeway between Interstate 5 and California State Route 57.  California State Route 210 makes up the remaining 40.41 miles of the Foothill Freeway east to Interstate 10.  Interstate 210 is still classified by the Federal Highway Administration as existing on what is now signed as California State Route 57 from San Dimas south to Interstate 10.  The focus of this blog will mostly be on the history of Interstate 210 segment of the Foothill Freeway.   Part 1; the history of Interstate 210 and California State Route 210 Interstate 210 (I-210) was approved as a chargeable Interstate during September of
Post a Comment
Read more