Skip to main content

Pine Valley Road (Monterey County)

By

Pine Valley Road is a rural single-lane highway located in the Gabilan Range of southern Monterey County.  The roadway originates at the former alignment of US Route 101 along Cattleman Road and extends nine miles north to California State Route 198 in Long Valley.  Pine Valley Road appears to have been plotted after the Southern Pacific Railroad was extended through San Ardo during the late 1880s.  




Part 1; the history of Pine Valley Road

Pine Valley Road is located in southern Monterey County and is named after a valley of same name.  Pine Valley Road originates at the former alignment of US Route 101 on Cattleman Road near the former site of Docas siding.  Docas was located between the larger Southern Pacific Railroad sidings of San Lucas and San Ardo.  

Both San Lucas and San Ardo were plotted by the Southern Pacific Railroad (now Union Pacific Railroad) in 1886 as siding facilities.  San Ardo was originally known as San Bernardo, but the name was changed upon receiving Post Office Service in 1887.  Conversely the name of San Lucas was derived from Rancho San Lucas.  Both San Lucas and San Ardo can be seen on the 1890 George F. Cram Railroad Map of California.  

The 1915 United States Geological Survey map of Priest Valley depicts a primitive road through Pine Valley and Gabilan Range from near Docas between Cattleman Road northeast to the Warthan Canyon Road (future California State Route 198) in Long Valley.  Pine Valley Road is shown to pass the site of the Sherman School near the mouth of Brown Canyon. 





Part 2; a drive on Pine Valley Road

Northbound Pine Valley Road begins near the site of Docas siding from Cattleman Road.  


Pine Valley Road crosses the Union Pacific Railroad in front of a power transformer station. 



The entirety of Pine Valley Road is a narrow single lane.  The initial couple miles are mostly straight but begins to curve considerably as road rises into the Gabilan Range.











Pine Valley Road continues north through numerous ranching properties to a crest above Long Valley located at approximately 1,281 feet above sea level.

























Pine Valley Road descends into Long Valley and terminates at California State Route 198. 







Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The case to move Interstate 73 in Southern Ohio onto US 33

By
Every decade or so, Ohio pushes to revisit the proposed Interstate 73 that would connect Michigan to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It's been happening since Congress legislated the route in 1991.  Within Ohio, Interstate 73 generally follows the US 23 corridor from Portsmouth through Columbus to Toledo, and into Michigan. Since High Priority Corridor Five was created , Ohio has really done nothing to move forward with Interstate 73.  Sure, there have been feasibility studies here and there.  But actual dollars and construction just haven't occurred. The US 33 Nelsonville Bypass appears to have been built to Interstate standards. However, Ohio has been slowly upgrading US 33 to a full freeway through Southeastern Ohio.  Bypasses of Lancaster and Nelsonville opened in 2004 and 2013, respectively.  Other sections of two-lane road are being twinned, some to freeway or, at a minimum, to expressway standards.  Currently, a $274 million widening project in...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rep. Sue Myrick's letter to Gov. Easley and Sect. Tippett published in Charlotte Observer

By
US. Representative Sue Myrick's (R-Charlotte) letter to North Carolina's Governor Mike Easley and NC Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett was published in the Friday, November 30th edition of the Charlotte Observer . Why are we delaying the completion of 1-485 in Charlotte again? I read in The Charlotte Observer how rising prices of materials are leading to the delay. Why didn't these same rising costs delay the loops in Fayetteville and Wilmington? Why are we building loops in Fayetteville and Wilmington before we complete the one in Charlotte? We were working on the one in Charlotte back when I was mayor. That was 20 years ago! ... Last I looked Charlotte was the largest city in the state. There seems to be no recognition of that fact in Raleigh. No recognition that we are at a standstill with traffic. No recognition that we have a traffic problem. Nor is there any recognition of the fact that the state DOT utterly botched up the southern leg of our yet to be completed ...
Post a Comment
Read more

I-90 in Albany, New York and the Berkshire Spur

By
Today's Albany Times Union has a segment in their weekly Getting There? column that explains some of the history behind how I-90 is designated in the Albany, NY area as well as the Berkshire Spur. The long and short of the article was that I-90 was originally designated on the unsigned portion of the Berkshire Spur, but as free I-90 was built, the designation was moved onto the free portion of road. Additionally, there were talks in 1999 between state and federal officials about the possibility of moving I-90 back onto the unsigned portion of the Berkshire Spur, while extending I-88 onto what we know as free I-90. There would have also had been an I-88/I-90 multiplex between Rotterdam and Albany as a result. http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=916307
Post a Comment
Read more