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California State Route 177

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The first Californian signed highway I ever fully clinched was the quiet California State Route 177 out in the middle of the Sonoran Desert of Riverside County in 2011.  At the time I was working frequently in the Inland Empire Area and would use CA 177 as a shortcut to Mohave County, Arizona and Clark County, Nevada.  The last time I visited CA 177 in any capacity was in 2016.


The current CA 177 is the second highway to carry the designation and was authorized by the Legislature in 1972 according to CAhighways.org.  The current CA 177 is 27 mile north/south highway between I-10 north in Desert Center to CA 62.

CAhighways.org on CA 177

CA 177 was built over existing Rice Road out in the Sonoran Desert.   The full route of CA 177 appears a fully fledged State Highway first on the 1975 State Highway Map.

1975 State Highway Map

As a route the southern terminus of CA 177 is at I-10 in Desert Center.  Desert Center is a ghost town that was founded in the early 1920s as a transportation hub and grew from local mining activity at Eagle Mountain.  North of I-10 the route of CA 177 crosses former US Route 60/70 on Ragsdale Road.  More about US 60/70 on Ragsdale Road and the ghost town of Desert Center can be found on the blog below.

Old US Route 60/70 through Hell (Chuckwalla Valley Road and Ragsdale Road)

Below is a photo of a CA 177 shield I took from Ragsdale Road looking south at the terminus of I-10.


CA 177 has one major junction heading north out of Desert Center at Signed County Route R2//Kaiser Road.  CR R2 heads directly northward away from Desert Center towards the Eagle Mountain mine site.  CR R2 is 11.26 miles in length according to CAhighways.org.

CAhighways.org on CR R2

The remainder of CA 177 north out of Desert Center is a largely flat desert highway that is signed at 65 MPH all the way to CA 62.  Of note, Chuckwall Valley Raceway is located a couple miles north of Desert Center on CA 177.  Sections of CA 177 also skirt the eastern edge of Joshua Tree National Park.

CA 177 ironically is one of the first State Highway shields that I added to my sign collection.  I obtained this CA 177 shield from an eBay auction in 2013.


The first CA 177 was located between US 60 and modern CA 79 near Beaumont.  The first CA 177 was carved out of the segment of CA 79 on Gillman Springs Road which was re-designated as LRN 186 in 1959 according to CAhighways.org.  CA 79 was realigned in 1964 which coincidentally was the year the State Highway Renumbering occurred.  CA 79 being realigned and the first CA 177 can be seen by comparing the 1963 State Highway Map to the 1964 edition.

1963 State Highway Map 

1964 State Highway Map

According to CAhighways.org the first CA 177 was deleted in 1965 but it still appears on the 1966 State Highway Map.

1966 State Highway Map

The first CA 177 finally disappears by the 1967 State Highway Map edition.

1967 State Highway Map
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