Los Gatos Creek Road/Coalinga Road

In late December of 2016 I was traveling through the Diablo Range and wanted to try Los Gatos Creek Road/Coalinga Road as an alternate to CA 198.

I started the day out with taking CA 198 to the 33 junction north of Coalinga. From there I took Shell Road, Oil City Road, Palmer Avenue, and Derrick Avenue to reach Los Gatos Creek Road.

As a singular route Los Gatos Creek Road and Coalinga Road are a roughly 46 miles in crossing the Diablo Range to CA 25 just north of Bitterwater in San Benito County.

The Fresno side of the route is signed as Los Gatos Creek Road and the San Benito side is Coalinga Road.

The entire route through the Diablos is paved. The Fresno County side is pretty high quality with a center stripe the entire way along with a very gradual grade up to the the Condon Peak recreation area and San Benito County.

After crossing into San Benito County the route becomes Coalinga Road and is a single wide lane with no center stripe. I should note that it was about 20F outside when I made this trip and the shaded areas of the roadway in San Benito County were largely frost covered.

Interestingly between Coalinga and the Clear Creek Management Area there are plenty of ranch homes or at least just as many if not more than CA 198 to the south. The Clear Creek Management Area has naturally occurring asbestos fibers which are actually hazardous to travel in during the dry summer months. .Areas north of the Clear Creek Management Area have additional hazards from the New Idria Mercury Mine which is a ghost town and Super Fund site.

Despite Coalinga Road being narrow I didn't really have much issues with surface quality aside from the couple miles between the Clear Creek Management Area and Hernandez Reservoir. Essentially the issue wasn't so much the asphalt quality but rather surface ice/frost on the road and a large quantity of rock fall. Coalinga Road has a very steep uphill grade westbound past the Hernandez Reservoir up to the Laguna Mountain Recreation Area.

The Hernandez Dam is a pretty interesting topic to me. NE2 from AAroads shared a 1939 State Highway Map showing that there was a populated place called "Hernandez" where the reservoir is now. Apparently the reservoir was built in the 1960s to impound the San Benito River and Hernandez disappeared off the State Highway Maps by 1967. Hernandez wasn't shown in the 1896 San Benito County Map but is present on the State Highway Map in 1918. Its strange that I can't find any mention of Hernandez anywhere on the web but that seems to be the case with almost every previously populated place in San Benito County aside from New Idria. Regardless here is links to the previously mentioned maps:

1939 State Highway Map

1966 State Highway Map

1967 State Highway Map

1935 San Benito Topographical Map

1918 State Highway Map

1896 San Benito County Map

I was able to find this transformer box with "Hernandez Dam" near the Laguna Mountain Campground.

Coalinga Road gets keeps getting more windy and even fords a creek up to about 3,000 feet above sea level at Laguna Mountain.

Laguna Mountain has some fantastic views of the Diablo Range. I'm to understand the peak is 4,462 feet above sea level.

Coalinga Road sharply descends from Laguna Mountain through Miller Canyon where there is some sharp hair pin curves.

Coalinga Road levels out onto a placid valley filled with ranch lands.

The 1939 Map showed that the previous alignment of Coalinga Road used what is now Old Hernandez Road. Old Hernandez is closed off now but popped out to the northwest at San Benito at CA 25.

West of Old Hernandez Road, Coalinga Road becomes a two-lane road again all the way to CA 25.

Paper Highways; California State Route 1 through the Lost Coast

For all the accolades and praise that California State Route 1 gets for being a top notch coastal highway one fact tends to get overlooked; the highway was never finished! In this edition of Paper Highways we look at the failed path of California State Route 1 through the Lost Coast.

Part 1; the history of Legislative Route 56 and California Route 1 through the Lost Coast

The Lost Coast region consists of the undeveloped coastal areas of Humboldt County, Mendocino County, and the King Range. The Lost Coast region roughly spans from near Rockport in Mendocino County north to Ferndale of Humboldt County. The Lost Coast region is known for having rugged terrain which rivals what is seen in Big Sur. The Lost Coast has several small communities such as; Shelter Cove, Whitehorn, and Petrolia.

In 1933 Legislative Route 56 was extended south to LRN 2 (US 101) near Las Cruces and north to Ferndale to LRN 1 (also US 101). Prior to 1933 the legislative description of LRN 56 had it's nort…

US Route 99 to Visalia?...

Something that I noticed awhile back while doing map research regarding US Route 99 in Fresno was that the highway intended to be originally routed through the City of Visalia.

The early originally planned alignment of US Route 99 in Visalia

To be clear US 99 was never actually routed through Visalia and ended up bypassing the City in favor of a direct route from Goshen southeast to Tulare. US 99 within San Joaquin Valley was aligned over Legislative Route 4 which in turn was added to the State Highway System as part of the 1909 First State Highway Bond Act. LRN 4 for a time was aligned through Visalia via; Mineral King Avenue, Main Street, and Mooney Boulevard. This early alignment of LRN 4 through Visalia can be seen on the 1924 Division of Highways State Map.

The initial draft of the US Route System was approved by the Secretary of Agriculture during November of 1925. The US Route System with in California was approved by California Highway Commission with no changes recommended…

Where the hell is Hill Valley? (US Route 8 south/US Route 395 east)

Recently I made a visit to Universal Studios near Los Angeles. While on the back lot tour I came across a piece of infamous movie-borne fictional highway infamy; the location of town square of Hill Valley, California on US Route 8/US Route 395.

The above photo is part of the intro scene to the first Back-to-the-Future movie which was set in 1985. To anyone who follows roadways the signage error of US 8 meeting US 395 in California is an immediately notable error. For one; US 8 doesn't even exist anywhere near California with present alignment being signed as an east/west highway between Norway, Michigan and Forest Lake, Minnesota. To make matters worse US 8 is signed as a southbound route and US 395 (a north/south highway) is signed as an eastbound route. At minimum the cut-out US 8 and US 395 shields somewhat resemble what Caltrans used in the 1980s.

Assuming Hill Valley is located on what would have been US 395 by 1985 what locales would be a viable real world analog? US 39…

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