Throwback Thursday; Colossal Cave and the Old Spanish Trail

Back in 2012 I visited the Colossal Cave which is located on an old alignment of the Old Spanish Auto Trail north of Vail.

There is a signed section of the Old Spanish Trail which runs from the entrance to the Colossal Cave Mountain Park northwest to Broadway Boulevard in Tucson.

I'm not certain when the Colossal Cave segment of Old Spanish Trail was in use due to maps from the time frame being sparse. What I do know is that US 80 didn't use the alignment but instead was on Old Vail Road which can be seen on this 1927 regional map. Colossal Cave can actually be seen present on the map north of Vail.

1927 Four Corners Regional Map

Colossal Cave was originally used by several Southern Arizonan tribes before being rediscovered in 1879. Colossal Cave is considered to be a dry cave and has a constant temperature close to 70F. The main cave is closed to access aside from a guided tour.

I'm fairly certain that the Old Spanish Trail was realigned upon the completion of the 1920 Cienega Creek Bridge located on Marsh Station Road. Prior to 1920 it would have been likely have been much easier route a road between Benson and Tucson which did to not cross Cienega Creek closer to the Rincon Mountains. Given that travel in Arizona even by the era of the US Routes was still largely primitive I think its safe to assume that a journey on the 1915 Old Spanish Trail was even more harrowing. Regardless information about the Cienega Creek Bridge can be found on bridgehunter.com.

Bridgehunter on Cienega Creek Bridge

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California State Route 190; a Trans-Sierra Highway that could have been

This past week I decided to take a small scale road trip on California State Route 190 from CA 99 east to the unbuilt section over the Sierra Nevada Range. While I was in for what turned out to be a fun drive following the course of the Tule River watershed what I found researching the back story of CA 190 was one of the most complex and unusual stories of any California State Highway. Given that I had a ton of older photos of the eastern segment of CA 190 in the Mojave Desert of Inyo County I thought it was time to put something together for the entire route. The simplified story of CA 190 is that it is a 231 mile state highway that has a 43 mile unbuilt gap in the Sierra Nevada Range. CA 190 is an east/west State Highway running from CA 99 in Tulare County at Tipton east to CA 127 located in Death Valley Junction near the Nevada State Line in rural Inyo County. The routing CA 190 was adopted into the State Highway system as Legislative Route 127 which was adopted in 1933 acc

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates, Year in Review 2022

Another year over, already? 2022 turned out to be quite the year if you are a fan of new interstate routes, and it wasn't bad for some long standing favorites. As per the tradition, I will review what happened with I-73 and I-74, and then the other new and future interstate routes in North Carolina... Work continued on the one segment of I-73 under construction, the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass. As of the beginning of December, work was getting close to being 2/3 complete at 60.1%. Progress could be seen from US 74 on constructing of the future interchange at the Bypass's southern end. Here's a look from US 74 East in September from Google Maps Street View: Here's a photo from US 74 West taken last week by David Gallo: Work is now scheduled to be completed in October 2025, though the road itself could open earlier that year. Progress on I-74 earned more publicity in 2022 with the opening of 7.5 more miles of the Winston-Salem Northern Beltway from US 311 (Exit 49) to NC

Interstate 605

Interstate 605 is a 27.4-mile freeway located in the Los Angeles Metropolitain Area. Interstate 605 begins at Interstate 210 near Duarte and terminates at the Interstate 405/California State Route 22 junction to the south near the boundary to the city of Long Beach. Interstate 605 is known as the San Gabriel River Freeway and has three unconstructed miles which would extend it south to California State Route 1 near Seal Beach. Much of the corridor of Interstate 605 was built up from what was the original California State Route 35. The blog cover photo is taken from the July/August 1964 California Highways & Public Works which featured the initial segment of Interstate 605 to open between Whittier Boulevard and Peck Road Part 1; the history of the San Gabriel River Freeway and Interstate 605 The origin of what is now Interstate 605 begins during 1933 with the addition of Legislative Route Number 170 (LRN 170) to the State Highway System. The original definition of LRN 170 was

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