2018 Mojave Desert Road Trip Part 8; Leaving Las Vegas (The High Roller, Seven Magic Mountains, and wreckage of Mervyn's)

Upon returning to Las Vegas from the Hoover Dam it was time to close out the first major road trip of 2018. Saturday night I walked over to the High Roller which is the largest Ferris Wheel in the world at 550 feet. The High Roller was opened in March of 2014 and is located essentially directly east of The Flamingo. Rides on the High Roller are about 30 minutes in length from start to finish. What I found interesting was that the Ferris Wheel never stops moving and you literally jump-on/jump-off. There is a giant catch net under the Ferris Wheel pods, unfortunately I didn't get ask if anyone actually fell in.

Sunday afternoon heading out of Las Vegas south on I-15 I turned off onto Las Vegas Boulevard in Sloan. Seven miles south of Sloan is the Seven Magic Mountains which is an art display out in the waste above the Jean Dry Lake. Apparently the colored rocks are 25 feet and were assembled in May of 2016. According to the website the "mountains" will only be on display for two years (so, does that mean someone comes and knocks them over?).

After returning to I-15 I took it south to California State Route 58. A solid tip of advice is to never drive home from Las Vegas on a Sunday afternoon since you'll be competing with all the drivers from Los Angeles and San Diego going home. Suffice to say I was a little too tired to really capture the Hinkley Bypass on CA 58 but it is a pretty solid alignment that really helps mitigate backups at US 395 in Kramer Junction. The Kramer Junction Bypass seems to be in the initial stages with some earth moved to widen out CA 58.

West of US 395 I encountered an oddity I've observed on CA 58 since 2012, a derelict Mervyn's trailer.

Mervyn's was a somewhat large California based clothing retailer that was once owned by Target Corporation and went bankrupt in late 2008. According to local lore I've heard in Victorville the Mervyn's trailer on CA 58 showed up on the side of the highway after the bankruptcy was declared back in 2008. Given there isn't really a fence line CA 58 between Kramer Junction and Boron there might be an ounce of truth in the story, but then again who really knows?

On the way back to Fresno I was able to get a decent CA 202 shield finally for my photo collection. All my previous attempts to obtain a CA 202 have been blurred up or I just haven't around with enough light to capture a moving picture.

Comments

Trimmer Springs Road (Fresno County)

Trimmer Springs Road is an approximately forty-mile rural highway located in Fresno County. The corridor begins near in California State Route 180 in Centerville and extends to Blackrock Road at the Kings River in the Sierra Nevada range near the Pacific Gas & Electric Company town of Balch Camp. The roadway is named after the former Trimmer Springs Resort and was originally constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume. Trimmer Springs Road was heavily modified and elongated after construction of Pine Flat Dam broke ground in 1947. Part 1; the history of Trimmer Springs Road Much of the original alignment of Trimmer Springs Road was constructed to facilitate access to the Sanger Log Flume. The Kings River Lumber Company had been established in 1888 in the form of a 30,000-acre purchase of forest lands in Converse Basin. This purchase lied immediately west of Grant Grove and came to be known as "Millwood." The co...

When was Ventura Avenue east of downtown Fresno renamed to Kings Canyon Road? (California State Route 180)

California State Route 180 was one of the original Sign State Routes designated in August 1934. The highway east of Fresno originally utilized what was Ventura Avenue and Dunlap Road to reach what was then General Grant National Park. By late year 1939 the highway was extended through the Kings River Canyon to Cedar Grove. In 1940 General Grant National Park would be expanded and rebranded as Kings Canyon National Park. The Kings Canyon Road designation first appeared in publications circa 1941 when the California State Route 180 bypass of Dunlap was completed. Kings Canyon Road ultimately would replace the designation of Dunlap Road from Dunlap to Centerville and Ventura Avenue west to 1st Street in Fresno. The Kings Canyon Road would remain largely intact until March 2023 when the Fresno Council designated Cesar Chavez Boulevard. Cesar Chavez Boulevard was designated over a ten-mile corridor over what was Kings Canyon Road, remaini...

Interstate 99 at 30

When it comes to the entirety of the Interstate Highway System, Interstate 99, when fully completed, is nothing more than 161 miles of a roughly 48,000-mile system (0.3% of total length). Yet, to more than just a handful of people, the number '99' rubs them the wrong way. Interstate 99 follows the path of two US Highway Routes - US 220 from the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Bedford north to Interstate 80 and then to US 15/Interstate 180 in Williamsport. It then follows US 15 from Williamsport north to Interstate 86 in Corning, New York. Interstate 99 runs with US 220 through much of Central Pennsylvania. (Doug Kerr) US 220 from Cumberland, Maryland to Interstate 80 and US 15 north of Williamsport were designated part of the Appalachian Highway System in 1965. Construction to upgrade both corridors progressed steadily but slowly. In 1991, the two corridors were included as a National High Priority Corridor. The route from Cumberland to Corning consisted of High P...