Skip to main content

Ballard Canyon Road

By

Ballard Canyon Road is an approximately seven-mile-long rural highway located in the Santa Ynez Valley region of Santa Barbara County.  The roadway traverses the namesake Ballard Canyon from the outskirts of Los Olivos southwest to California State Route 246 in Buellton.  Ballard Canyon Road is named after the Santa Ynez Valley community of Ballard and was once part of Rancho San Carlos de Jonata.  The original purpose of Ballard Canyon Road was to connect to the Foxen Canyon Road with the Lompoc Road. 




Part 1; the history of Ballard Canyon Road

Ballard Canyon Road is aligned through the namesake north/south canyon which itself is a larger part of Santa Ynez Valley.  The lands comprising Ballard Canyon were once part of Rancho San Carlos de Jonata.  The Rancho was granted in 1845 by then Alta California Governor Pio Pico to Joaquin Carrillo and Jose Maria Covarrubias.  The land grants of Carrillo and Covarrubias were later honored by the American Federal government when California became a state after the Mexican-American War.  

Ballard Canyon itself is named after the community of Ballard.  Ballard is the oldest community in Santa Ynez Valley and was founded in 1880 by William Ballard as a Wells Fargo stage station.  The community itself was located on the stage road from San Marcos to Santa Maria Valley via Foxen Canyon.  Ballard can be seen on the 1882 Bancroft's Map of California.  


Ballard Canyon Road can be seen on the 1905 United States Geological Survey map of Lompoc.  The roadway is seen connecting through Rancho San Carlos de Jonata from the Foxen Canyon Road near Los Olivos southwest to the Lompoc Road (currently California State Route 246) near the current site of Buellton.  Rancho San Carlos de Jonata would be subdivided in 1911 and would be used for the town plot of Solvang next to Mission Santa Ines. 


Ballard Canyon Road can be seen in greater detail on the 1959 United States Geological Survey map of Los Olivos.  



Much of Ballard Canyon Road now part of the Ballard Canyon Agricultural Viticultural Area (AVA).  The AVA was declared during October 2013 and is comprised of 7,800 acres.  Ballard Canyon is considered ideal for wine making given the soil conditions being more uniform than the floor of Santa Ynez Valley.



Part 2; a drive on Ballard Canyon Road

Southbound Ballard Canyon Road begins in the outskirts of Los Olivos at the intersection of Foxen Canyon Road and Steele Street.  


Southbound Ballard Canyon Road makes a rapid ascent to the rim of Ballard Canyon.  At the beginning of the ascent traffic is advised that the road ahead is curvy for the next 7 miles.  












Ballard Canyon Road reaches the rim of Ballard Canyon and hairpins sharply.





Ballard Canyon Road continues south and intersects Chalk Hill Road.  Traffic wishing to access Solvang can by continuing straight on Chalk Hill Road.  Buellton bound traffic is required to take a right hand turn to continue on Ballard Canyon Road towards California State Route 246.






















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

Local Sign Find - The last remnant of Business Interstate 95 between Kenly and Rocky Mount , NC

By
As you head north on Interstate 95 at Exit 107 for Kenly and US 301, you'll notice something odd about the overhead sign for the exit.  Peeling off the sign for all that can see is the word 'NORTH' off-center from the US 301.  This old sign (probably close to original from when this section of I-95 opened - more on that in a little bit) gives a hint to a short-lived Business Interstate Route that ran from here to Rocky Mount. The last hint of the Kenly-Wilson-Rocky Mount Business I-95 (Shaun White - August 2020) Interstate 95 in North Carolina has a unique history.  But one of the overlooked and forgotten pieces of Interstate 95 in North Carolina is the 38 mile section between Kenly and Rocky Mount.  When opened to traffic in late 1978, it was the next to last piece of Interstate 95 in North Carolina to open replacing a four lane US 301 from Battleboro through Rocky Mount and Wilson to eventually tying back into the Interstate in Kenly. Though it was not delayed in l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nostalgia fast food with style - Returning to Rax

By
Nostalgia. It sells. It evokes, and more accurately, warps memories of days gone by.  Things were better, simpler, and we eat it up. Nostalgia can make you drive three hours and over a hundred miles out of your way just to reconnect with a dying fast-food restaurant you last enjoyed in the early to mid-90s.  That person was me - that restaurant was Rax. I could go on about Rax's history, but in short, Rax was briefly a very popular roast beef fast-food chain.  Growing up in the 80s and early 90s in Western PA, Rax was the good fast-food spot.  The milkshakes.  (Personally, the chocolate chip milkshake was heaven.)  Uncle Alligator Kids Meal with the chocolate chip cookie. Take that McDonald's Happy Meal!  The fancy salad and hot foods bar.  Going to Rax was special.  Like so many similar restaurants, various investments, management decisions, etc., led Rax to almost disappear overnight.  By the time I graduated college in late 1999, abou...
Post a Comment
Read more