Skip to main content

Parker Pass Road (Tulare County Mountain Road 50)

By

Parker Pass Road is a rural highway located in the Sierra Nevada range of Tulare County.  As the name suggests, this 19-mile-long corridor crosses the 6,443-foot-high Parker Pass.  Parker Pass Road is maintained as Tulare County Mountain Road 50 and begins at Hot Springs Drive (Tulare County Mountain Road 56) in California Hot Springs.  The highway crosses a series of switchbacks and terminates near the community of Johnsondale at Kern River Highway (Tulare County Mountain Road 99). 

Parker Pass Road was completed in 1935 to permit automotive traffic to reach Johnsondale by way of California Hot Springs.  Johnsondale was originally plotted as a Mountain Whitney Lumber Company owned town to house workers.  The community would remain an active company logging town until operations shuttered in 1979 and it was sold to private investors. 




Part 1; the history of Parker Pass Road

Parker Pass Road was constructed to facilitate the highway travel between California Hot Springs and Johnsondale.  The Johnsondale town site was constructed by the Mount Whitney Lumber Company in 1935 east of Parker Pass.  Parker Pass is named after nearby Parker Creek.  In 1937 a bridge was constructed over the Kern River east of Johnsondale which permitted road access via Kern River Highway (now Tulare County Mountain Road 99) to Kernville.  The Johnsondale Post Office would open in 1939, and the first sawmill would burn in 1943. 

Parker Pass Road can be seen connecting California Hot Springs and Johnsondale on the 1948 United States Geological Survey map of Bakersfield.  


Logging operations in Johnsondale would end in 1979.  The property was subsequently sold off to R-Ranch and was subdivided.  Modern Johnsondale mostly is comprised of summer cabins which flank the former Mount Whitney Lumber Company logging pond.  The community is a popular access point for numerous recreational activities within Sequoia National Forest. 

In modern times Parker Pass Road would be assigned as Tulare County Mountain Road 50.  Much of the corridor can be seen in detail on the 1986 United States Geological Survey map of California Hot Springs.  Said map displays Parker Pass as being located at an elevation of 6,443 feet above sea level near Parker Meadow and Parker Creek.  







Part 2; a drive on Parker Pass Road

The southern terminus of Western Divide Highway (Tulare County Mountain Road 107) is located at Parker Pass Road (signed as Tulare County Mountain Road 50) near the namesake Parker Pass.  Westbound traffic is advised California Hot Springs is 13 miles away.  Johnsondale isn't posted for eastbound traffic, but it is approximately 6 miles away. 



Eastbound Parker Pass Road descends towards Johnsondale within view of the Kern Canyon Fault.  Parker Pass Road terminates at the junction of Lloyd Meadow Road (Forest Road 22S82) and Kern River Highway (Tulare County Mountain Road 99) approximately a third of a mile from the entrance to Johnsondale.  Johnsondale itself is located at 4,720 feet above sea level. 



Traffic on Parker Pass Road west of Western Divide Highway is advised of 11 miles of curves ahead.  


Westbound Parker Pass Road crosses the namesake Parker Pass and intersects Forest Road 22S04 at Parker Meadow. 





Westbound Parker Pass Road descends to approximately 5,500 feet above sea after passing Cold Springs Saddle.  The highway approaches the top of a grade which carries eight switchbacks.  





















Parker Pass Road descends through the switchbacks and crosses over Tyler Creek at approximately 3,562 feet above sea level.  






























Westbound Parker Pass Road terminates at Hot Springs Road (Tulare County Mountain Road 56) near California Hot Springs and Pine Flat. 






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
3 comments
Read more

Hawaii Route 50

By
Hawaii Route 50 is the longest Sign Route on the island of Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The entirety of Hawaii Route 50 is overlaid atop Kaumualii Highway from Lihue west to the Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands. Hawaii Route 50 is one of the original 1955-era State Highway designations on Kauai.  Much of the Kaumualii Highway corridor was constructed during the sugar plantation boom of the late Hawaiian Kingdom.  The first tee beam bridge in Hawaii would be constructed along the Kaumualii Highway in 1911 at the Hanapepe.  Much of this highway would be modernized to two-lane standards through the 1930s and 1940s. This page is part of the Gribblenation Hawaii Roads series.  A compellation of all Hawaii-related media from both Gribblenation and RoadwayWiz can be found by clicking  here .  Part 1; the history of Hawaii Route 50 and Kaumualii Highway Hawaii Route 50 is the longest highway on Kauai at 32.6 miles.  The highway begins at Rice Str...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more