Between Yosemite’s Tioga Pass and Sherman Pass near the Kern River, there are no paved roadways crossing the crest of the Sierra Nevada. That makes travel from places like Fresno to the eastern Sierra quite a trek. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, how Fresno leaders once tried to change that.
Today you can take Highway 168 from Central Fresno all the way to Huntington Lake. From there the road continues as Kaiser Pass Road providing access to Mono Hot Springs, Florence and Edison Lakes. Maintained by the Forest Service, it was constructed in the early years of the 20th century to aid the construction of hydroelectric projects. It offers impressive views but features many hairpin turns and is only one lane wide in many sections.
Starting in 1919, business leaders in Fresno and Bishop lobbied both Sacramento and Washington to build an extension of the Kaiser Pass Road - dubbed the High Sierra Piute Highway. It would have required around 32 miles of construction from Florence Lake to Bishop. The roadway would have crossed the Sierra crest at Piute Pass. At around 11,400 feet it would have been the highest road crossing of the Sierra, and might have been open only three months a year.
While the proposed highway had a heavy lobbying push in the 1920s, the proposal fizzled out in the next decade. The Great Depression and the growing conservation movement, which recognized the value of preserving wilderness areas, both doomed the proposed road.
While the highway was never built, there’s still evidence of this original vision on the map today. In the eastern Sierra, you’ll find a section of Highway 168 connecting Sabrina Lake to Bishop and the Nevada border.
