Signed County J2 over Corral Hollow Pass; ghost towns, ghost rails and The Old Road (El Camino Viejo)
Earlier this month I traveled over the Diablo Range on one of the oldest right-of-ways in California; Signed County Route J2 via Corral Hollow Pass on what was El Camino Viejo. Long before modern roadways and American California the landscape of Spanish Las Californias was far different than today. Europeans living in Las Californias largely occupied communities along the coastline which were for the most part were attached to one of the twenty-one Catholic Missions. The Missions were stringed together by a road know as El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") which stretched from Mission San Diego de Alcala in present day San Diego north to Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma in modern day Sonoma. Given that the Spanish Missions were located along the coast the majority of travel in Las Californias was along El Camino Real. Travel into the interior of Las Californias through San Joaquin Valley was a difficult prospect given the lack of civilization and more s