The Corridor to The West

Many famous people from the late 19th and early 20th centuries traveled on Kings Canyon Road. These people included Mark Twain, Ulysses Grant, Theodore Roosevelt and lumber barons D.L. Bliss and Henry Yerington.
This dimunitive, 12 mile long, winding road through the mountains was an important route to California and the Pacific Ocean from the Eagle Valley and its burgeoning population. It was the first road to be built through the rugged Sierra Nevadas.
Today, the majority of the road is owned by the U.S. Forest Service, particularly Humboldt National Forest. The road is still open to the public, but it cannot be negotiated in a modern day, two-wheel drive vehicle because it is extremely steep and rough. it is not maintained by the Forest Service, so driving along this road is purely a "drive at your own risk" venture. Travel on the road today is by four-wheel drive vehicle, by mountain bike, or by foot.
The Kings Canyon toll Road used to begin directly across the street from the Nevada State Capitol. In its early reaches, it was known as West King street. It was the principal east-west street in Nevada's capitol city and today still serves as the "0"point for street addresses in Carson City. It divides the north and south addresses.The front doors of the capitol were once lined up with the middle of the street. When it used to begin opposite the capitol, it also ran alongside the former Ormsby County Courthouse, which is now a part of the state Judicial Complex. Eventually, I don't know exactly when, the first block of the street was closed off to create space for the state Judicial Complex. The Nevada State Supreme Court was once located in this complex, but it is now located behind the capitol on South Stewart Street. The beginning of West King Street today is at the intersection with Curry Street, one block west of the capitol. Thirteen blocks west of the street's beginning is the intersection with North Ormsby Boulevard, one of the busiest streets on the west side of Carson city. This is the point where the name changes from West King Street to Kings Canyon Road. About one mile farther west, the pavement ends and it becomes a dirt road on the west end of a small bridge over Kings Canyon Creek. For 1 1/2 miles, the dirt road is in very good condition and is maintained by the city road department. Then, at a cattle guard, the road enters Humboldt National Forest and is not maintained at all, although it is still open to the public. it is little more than a primitive dirt track, of the sort that is typically seen in national forests. On my vacation in September, 2008, I drove about 200 yards onto the unmaintained portion of the road in my Malibu, but then turned around when I saw big rocks protruding from the road's surface. The road continues like this, in a primitive and unmaintained condition for another 10 miles to its intersection with U.S. Highway 50 at the top of Spooner Summit just outside of Carson City. Over the decades, the Forest Service has discussed closing the road to all vehicular traffic and turning it into a hiking trail, but those efforts have been thwarted by local residents because of the historic significance of the road. After all, it was once a major transportation corridor and briefly serves as a federal highway, the Lincoln Highway, was was the nation's first transcontinental highway. For that reason, it should be kept open.
Considering the fact that the road is not maintained, it gets a surprising amount of use by jeeps and other four-wheel drive vehicles and by mountain bikes. The Forest Service also uses it on occasion to access that part of the forest.