The Blue Ridge Parkway - Mile 236.0 - Devil's Garden Overlook

Devil's Garden Overlook offers a narrow view into the valley below. The name "Devil's Garden" has two possible sources. Either, the then rocky cliffs of the mountainside or the abundance of snakes in the land below. Either way, it's an incredible vista.

http://surewhynotnow.blogspot.com/p/the-blue-ridge-parkway-drive.html

Navigation:

North - Mile 234.0 - Devil's Garden Overlook
South - Mile 236.9 - Air Bellows Overlook

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California State Route 88 the Carson Pass Highway

Between 2016 and 2017 I drove the majority of California State Route 88 from CA 99 in Stockton east over Carson Pass to CA 89.

CA 88 is a 122 mile state highway from CA 99 in Stockton east over the Sierra Nevada Range to the continuation route Nevada State Route 88 at the Nevada State Line. CA 88 is known as the Carson Pass Highway. Carson Pass at 8,574 feet above sea level along CA 88 is an all-year Mountain Pass in the Sierras and on occasion designated as Temporary US Route 50 when conditions are bad over Echo Summit.

CA 88 was not one of the original Signed State Highways. CA 8 was the original designation over Carson Pass which can be seen on the 1938 California State Highway Map.

1938 State Highway Map

CA 8 was substantially different than CA 88 west of Jackson as it largely follows the current route of CA 26. From US 99E in 1934 and later US 50/99 in 1936 from Stockton CA 8 originally used the following route to reach Jackson:

- Legislative Route 5 from US 99 in Stockton …

California State Route 85

Last week I had the opportunity to try out several Bay Area roadways. The first route on my list was California State Route 85 from CA 17 west to US Route 101.

CA 85 is an approximately 24 mile freeway starting at US 101 in San Jose which loops back to US 101 in Mountain View. I drove the entire route back in 2016 but my recent trip had me starting CA 85 at about the mid-way point in Los Gatos from CA 17 northbound.

CA 85 west of CA 17 briefly skirts the City limits of San Jose before entering Saratoga.

CA 85 dips back into the westernmost limits of San Jose at De Anza Boulevard. De Anza Boulevard was part of the original surface alignment of CA 9.

CA 85 in Cupertino is the location with the junction with I-280. The section of CA 85 north of I-280 is the original part of the freeway which means there is plenty of button-copy shields still posted.

CA 85 briefly dips into Sunnyvale before entering Mountain View. CA 85 encounters CA 82 which runs on the El Camino Real which obvious…

California State Route 49; The Golden Chain Highway (CA 41 north to CA 16)

Last year I traveled California State Route 49 from CA 16 north to CA 89 in one continuous trip. The prior two years I traveled the rest of CA 49 south to CA 41 in Oakhurst. This blog post consists of photos of the highway from that time period and historical information about the southern part of CA 49.

This blog post is meant to be a continuation of the previous one I did regarding CA 49 from CA 16 north to CA 89. A link to said blog post can be found below:

California State Route 49; The Golden Chain Highway (CA 16 north to CA 89)

As stated in the previous blog post; CA 49 is an approximately 295 mile long north/south highway which traverses the traditional Gold Rush Country of California. While I intend to discuss county level historical alignments of CA 49 as I did in the first blog post I thought this would be a good place to discuss the backstory of highway.

CA 49 was first signed in 1934 along a series of Legislative Route Numbers ("LRN") that were largely located…

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