Skip to main content

Fault Line Friday; Weird San Andreas Fault Roads between CA 198/25 and CA 41/46

By
Back in March I had a look at some of the weird roadways along the San Andreas Fault between the junction of CA 198/41 south to CA 46/41.  Specifically I traveled on; Peach Tree Road, Indian Valley Road, Slacks Canyon Road, Vineyard Canyon Road, and Cholame Road.  I started the day out by driving west on CA 198 to the overlook in the Diablos above Peach Tree Valley.  Peach Tree Valley is the boundary line between the Diablo and Gabilan Ranges which are bisected by the San Andreas Fault.


CA 198 drops sharply westbound out of the Diablos to a junction with CA 25 and Peach Tree Road.



Peach Tree Road has a center stripe and is two lanes for the first couple miles south off of CA 198 but that drops a very narrow single lane very quickly.



There is actually a couple interesting overviews of Slack Canyon that are worth stopping for.


Earlier this year Peach Tree Road was shut down while this new bridge was being put in.  The Google Street Vehicle shows the older bridge which looked to be pretty substantially narrow by comparison.



Peach Tree Road terminates here at the junction of Slacks Canyon Road and Indian Valley Road.  For whatever reason Slacks Canyon Road is been gated off and shows being that way pretty much on every GSV screen shot I looked at.  It looks like the Fault continues via Slacks Canyon Road, maybe that along with the lack of pavement was why it was closed? 



Indian Valley Road continues directly south and begins to rise through the Gabilan Range roughly to about 2,200 feet above sea level.


At the summit Indian Valley begins to drop elevation fast, I would say that this is the only section of any of the roads I traveled that had a "mountain road" feel to it.






Gradually Indian Valley Road levels out at about I want to say 1,400 feet, the descent from here on out was much more gentle.


Approaching Valleton and San Miguel there are increasing signs of residential habitation, by this point I still had not encountered another car.  I encountered seven south from this point to Vineyard Canyon Road.


Some nice bridge work near Big Sandy Road.


At the junction of Indian Valley Road and Hare Canyon Road is a community called Valleton.  Really it isn't really much of anything aside from ranch lands and a couple stray abandoned old homes.  Supposedly there was a post office here from the 1880s to almost 1920s, seems like it more or less a real place at one point.


By the time I hit junction with Hare Canyon Road I had traveled 27 miles south from CA 198.


South of Hare Canyon the roadway on Indian Valley begins to widen and basically it becomes somewhat a normal width.


 Eventually US 101 can be seen right before hitting the San Luis Obispo County Line.



 37 miles in I took an eastward swing on Vineyard Canyon Road.


 Vineyard Canyon Road is substantially wider and what I'd expect out of a modern roadway.


 Surprisingly the summit on Vineyard Canyon is pretty high at about 2,500 feet above sea level.


Approaching Slack Canyon Road and the San Andreas Fault there is some more interesting bridge work, I'm not sure what is up with the brown street blades.



The last five miles south to Parkfield-Coalinga Road and Cholame Road are pretty bland, I did make a stop in Parkfield for breakfast.


I did the rest of the Parkfield Grade from CA 198 in 2016, it is actually a pretty cool road.  The creek below is the actual fault line and there is a bow in the bridge that is obvious from outside the car.  I believe Parkfield has been around since the 1850s, there are less than 20 residents supposedly left in the town.  Parkfield is mostly known for being the most seismically active place in the Continental United States.







CA 46/41 is 17 miles of Parkfield via Cholame Road.


Cholame Road has some pretty nice single lane bridges and wide views before terminating at CA 41/46.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bleriot Ferry - Alberta

By
  Alberta operates six ferries scattered throughout the province. Roughly twenty to twenty-five kilometers up the Red Deer River from the town of Drumheller is one of the most scenic ferry crossings in all of Wild Rose Country, the Bleriot Ferry. Using the North Dinosaur Trail (Alberta Highway 838, or AB 838), the Bleriot Ferry provides a scenic river cruise of sorts in the Canadian Badlands. The Bleriot Ferry started operating in 1913 as the Munson Ferry when a few bridges crossed the Red Deer River. The ferry was started by Andre Bleriot, the brother of famed early aviator Louis Bleriot, who became famous for being the first person to fly over the English Channel. At the time, the Alberta provincial government commissioned local residents to run the ferries. There were several ferries along the Red Deer River, and not only did they serve as vital transportation links, but they also served as local social hubs, since everyone had to take the ferries to go places. Over time, as the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Interstate 40's Tumultuous Ride Through the Pigeon River Gorge

By
In the nearly 60 years Interstate 40 has been open to traffic through the Pigeon River Gorge in the mountains of Western North Carolina, it has been troubled by frequent rockslides and damaging flooding, which has seen the over 30-mile stretch through North Carolina and Tennessee closed for months at a time. Most recently, excessive rainfall from Hurricane Helene in September 2024 saw sections of Interstate 40 wash away into a raging Pigeon River. While the physical troubles of Interstate 40 are well known, how I-40 came to be through the area is a tale of its own. Interstate 40 West through Haywood County near mile marker 10. I-40's route through the Pigeon River Gorge dates to local political squabbles in the 1940s and a state highway law written in 1921. A small note appeared in the July 28, 1945, Asheville Times. It read that the North Carolina State Highway Commission had authorized a feasibility study of a "...water-level road down [the] Pigeon River to the Tennessee l...
4 comments
Read more

I-73/I-74 and NC Future Interstates Year in Review 2024

By
Welcome to another annual review of progress in constructing North Carolina's New and Future Interstate routes. While 2024 was not too exciting, with no new segments of major routes opening, there was 1 new interstate signing, another proposed new interstate route, and the near opening of a new segment for 2 routes. As tradition, I will start off with a review of what happened with I-73 and I-74 and then move on to the major news of the year about the other new and future routes. Work continued on the I-73/I-74 Rockingham Bypass through the year. The last few months have been hoping for news of its opening before 2025, without luck. Signs of its near completion included the placement of new signs, many with interstate shields uncovered, along the Bypass and intersecting roadways. For example, these went up along US 74 East: Overhead signage at Business 74 exit which contains the future ramp to I-73 North/I-74 West. Signage was also updated heading west on US 74 approaching the unop...
Post a Comment
Read more