The Scenic Ridge Route

click photo to enlarge		 The Scenic Ridge Route was first built in 1915. It was built to connect Southern California to Northern California.  It is built along the ridge at the top of the San Gabriel and Tehachapi Mountains. There was some talk about making California 2 states and it is this road that is credited with keeping it as one state. The speed limit on the road was 15 MPH.

click photo to enlarge		 This stretch is called Swede's cut. This was cut with a steam shovel. Most of the road was cut by hand due to difficulty of getting large steam shovels up in the mountains. There are many ruins along the way of old service stations, restaurants and hotels from the era. It was a long trip from LA to Bakerfield over the ridge route. The cars back then didn't have very good brakes and the cooling system were not all that good either.

click photo to enlarge		 There are many forest roads because the road cuts through what is now National Forest land. So, I had to go off roading a little bit <grin>.

click photo to enlarge		 When you are driving the Ridge Route you are up on top of the world. This view is at the southern end.

click photo to enlarge		 This is near the northern end. You are still up pretty high but the scenery has changes quite a bit.
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