Gribblenation

In late December of 2016 I was traveling through the Diablo Range and wanted to try Los Gatos Creek Road/Coalinga Road as an alternate to CA 198. I started the day out with taking CA 198 to the 33 junction north of Coalinga.  From there I took Shell Road, Oil City Road, Palmer Avenue, and Derrick Avenue to reach Los Gatos Creek Road. As a singular route Los Gatos Creek Road and Coalinga Road are a roughly 46 miles in crossing the Diablo Range to CA 25 just north of Bitterwater in San Benito County.    The Fresno side of the route is signed as Los Gatos Creek Road and the San Benito side is Coalinga Road. The entire route through the Diablos is paved.  The Fresno County side is pretty high quality with a center stripe the entire way along with a very gradual grade up to the the Condon Peak recreation area and San Benito County. After crossing into San Benito County the route becomes Coalinga Road and is a single wide lane with no center str

In 2014 I found myself on Davis Island which overlooks downtown Tampa. Davis Island was created from dredge expanding the small natural islands of Little Grassy Key and Big Grassy Key in the 1920s.  From the northern tip of Davis Island all of downtown Tampa can be seen.  On the far left the mouth of the Hillsborough River can be seen beneath the 1926 Platt Street Bridge which is a bascule span.  Behind the Platt Street Bridge the Selmon Expressway/Florida Toll Road 618 can be seen above the Hillsborough River.  In the center of the photo the Tampa Convention Center is obvious along the waterfront.  Tampa has the second highest number of high rise buildings in the State of Florida at 69 which is only behind Miami.

Back in 2012 I spent a considerable amount of time exploring the Mojave National Preserve located in northern San Bernadino County, California.  Of particular note was Kelbaker Road which leads traffic from Historic US Route 66 northward through the derelict reaches of the Mojave Desert to I-15/California State Route 127 in Baker.  Kelbaker Road essentially serves as the main park road for the National Park Service through the Mojave National Preserve.  The grade from US 66 north to Kelso is relatively new having popped up sometime in the late 1970s/early 1980s according to historicaerials.com.  The asphalt quality section of Kelbaker Road south of Kelso is decent but far from the best, at minimum it is paved which is often more than can be expected in the Mojave. Kelbaker Road has a junction with the Kelso Dunes a couple miles south of Kelso.  The Kelso Dunes cover an area of 45 square miles with dunes rising as high 650 feet above the desert floor.  The Kelso Dunes consi

In December of 2016 I visited Signed County Route G1 and Fremont Peak State Park in San Benito County. Signed County Route 1 is a 5.42 mile long highway traveling south from California State 156 in San Juan Bautista.  CR G1 is routed along the San Juan Grade/Salinas Road (the original alignment of US 101 incidentally) to San Juan Canyon Road.  CR G1 follows San Juan Canyon Road to the boundary of Fremont Peak State Park in the Gabilan Range.  While CR G1 technically terminates San Juan Canyon Road continues south to the foot of Fremont Peak.  Given the vista of the downhill grade leading out of Fremont Peak was absolutely massive I decided to take my photo album heading northbound. CAhighways.org on Signed County Route G1 Fremont Peak is the high point of the Gabilan Range at 3,455 feet above sea level.  Fremont Peak was surveyed by John C. Fremont in 1846 to access its military value.  Fremont Peak has a massive overlook of Monterey Bay which served a strategic importance