Click the links below to access photos of highway signs from around the state:
Last Updated December 2020
From October 2017 to November 2020, I focused on driving every mile of state highway in California and Nevada. This was a bit more of an excursion than past states – as I lived in Idaho during the entire journey. Clinching California required over a dozen plane trips and over a dozen roadtrips from Idaho, but was overall an excellent experience. While it’s hard to believe, I took my foot off the gas a bit (so to speak) in California-clinching, and allowed myself more time to stop and see the sights and enjoy the state.
I started this effort off as a typical Idaho person – vaguely interested in but highly suspicious of California, and came away as a true California-believer. It’s a great state with some great drivers’ roads, excellent ancient signage, fantastic cities, good food, beautiful scenery, and great outdoor experiences. To date, it’s the only place where I’ve gotten myself carsick driving – simply from whipping around curves too fast in rural areas. This happened at least three times – on SR 1 near its northern terminus, on SR 130, and on the portion of SR 168 near Nevada.
I’m not even really sure how to pick a favorite state highway in California – the state is so diverse and so interesting. I’m certainly partial to SR 33 in terms of the overall variety it offers, but also adored 1, 36, 62, 168, 190, 299 among others for various reasons. When I started clinching California from Idaho it was suggested to me that this was dumb, but it’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done and easily my favorite state of the nine I’ve clinched so far. I recommend you do that for yourself.
In the meantime, this website has a bunch of pictures of highways in California, but for those interested in a definitive and excellent source of everything California Highways, route histories, etc., you’re really missing out if you haven’t visited Daniel Faigin’s https://www.cahighways.org/.
