State Route Highway 299 in Northern California is
a California State Road. A portion of the road is a designated National
Scenic Byway. The road features twists and turns and traverses many forests.
From the (Pacific) ocean to the Nevada desert, SR299, the highway is
normally a two-lane road, that's seldom flat and boring. As it works its way
from Arcata at the Pacific Ocean, to the Nevada desert ghost towns, its
journey is a documentation of 30 years in which it was built beginning in
1934.
Some say it never actually was completed,
primarily because it has been realigned at different points throughout
California during its over 80 year existence.
The highway is approx. 300 miles long in
California, from west to east (or vice versa), and runs through mostly
smaller towns that transverse forests, state and national park lands.
Perhaps that's why it maintains the esteemed designation as a National Byway
(because of the lack of development along its several hundred miles journey.
The highways and roads in northern California often intersect the north to
south routes of Interstate Highway 5, and SR299 is no exception.
In the photos above you can see a portion
of the highway between Redding and Arcata in the redwood forests that
approach the coastal region. The left photo was taken out the front
window of the car while heading west toward Arcata just as the sun almost
set. In the picture you can see a tree top and the moon. In the right photo
you can see road signs for right angle turns in the road and warning to slow
to 25 miles per hour.
The map below shows an enlargement of the
SR299 route take on the journey appearing in the photos, while the map above
shows the entire state of California, parts of Oregon and Nevada where SR299
continues on.
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