grandpa
| As some of you know - - I love roadtrips - especially those that are
just a little different. July 17th was one of those roadtrips. This trip
was actually a trip within a trip. The Ridge Route was a one day
excurison of a 25 day long road trip which started in Lodi, Ohio on July
4th. The trip took us to the great Salt Lake, through Reno, over
the Sierra Nevada's (another slideshow), to Yosemite, down the Pacfic Coast
Highway to L.A., and returned via Route 66. The Ridge Route was special
- - - special in that the roadway has not been used for vehicle traffic
since 1929.
. . . . There's not much left. A staircase to nowhere at the site of the National Forest Inn. Stone walls and a staircase with the words Tumble Inn carved into it. Foundations buried beneath years of dirt at the Sandberg's Summit Hotel. They are all that remains of a historic portion of the Ridge Route that snakes through the mountains high above Interstate 5 between Gorman and Castaic. Built between 1913 and 1915 and paved in 1919, the Ridge Route was the first mountain highway (and the only North-South Route) built in California and carried traffic until 1933. Considered an engineering marvel of its day, the road opened up travel and commerce between Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley and spawned a cottage industry of inns, gas stations and restaurants along its twists and curves. It also spawned hundreds of tales from those who traversed its often treacherous hairpin turns and visited its compelling lodges and eateries. The stories, the remains, the road itself Ñ even in its current dilapidated state, all captured the imagination of . . . . . |
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