Old Control Road is an eleven-mile rural dirt highway located in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Old Control Road is a loop of Hot Springs Drive located north of King George Peak and maintained as Tulare County Mountain Road 52. The Old Control Road corridor was the original highway which served California Hot Springs when the resort was constructed in the 1880s. As the name implies during the automotive era traffic was managed by way of timed alternating one-way traffic. Functionally the Control Road was replaced around 1915 when modern Hot Springs Drive was constructed south of King George Peak. The history of the California Hot Springs Control Road The Hot Springs along Deer Creek were known to the native Bokinnuwad Yokuts prior the 1853 Kern County Gold Rush. Said gold rush spurred American development of the southern Sierra Nevada foothills in Tulare County. The Witt family would file land patent claims for the lands around upper Deer Cr...
Western Divide Highway is a rural roadway located in the Sierra Nevada and is maintained as Tulare County Mountain Road 107. Western Divide Highway begins at the terminus of California State Route 190 near Quaking Aspen and terminates approximately 15.5 miles to the south at Parker Pass Road (Tulare County Mountain Road 50). The corridor of Western Divide Highway is most famous for providing access to the Trail of 100 Giants in the Long Meadow Grove of Redwood Sequoias. The portion of Western Divide Highway north of Parker Pass Road to Long Meadow Grove was developed in 1935 as an access highway for the logging operations out of Johnsondale. The highway corridor was later extended north to California State Route 190 during the 1950s which permitted the development of the Ponderosa community in 1963. Western Divide Highway became associated with the Trail of 100 Giants which is where President Bill Clinton declared Giant Sequoia National Monument during April 2000...