US 80, US 101 red, Our travels green

On a cool but clear late December day Timmy and I left our trailer at our campsite in the San Diego Mountains and set out to explore the historic highways of urban San Diego County. We’d been tracking the route of old US 80 off and on from Las Cruces, New Mexico, diverging in Lordsburg, then picking it up again east of Phoenix. Today we would reach its terminus near the western “shining sea.”

East of our starting point for the day, the road was still signed Old Highway 80, but to the west it was Main Street again, this time for El Cajon, now a San Diego suburb. Progress seemed to have been somewhat gentle along there: many shops still had their south-of-the-border porticos and several traditional motels survived. Leaving El Cajon, the route merged back into I-8, before diverging a few exits later as El Cajon Boulevard in La Mesa.

El Cajon Boulevard, The Boulevard, along the US80 route by jkbrown

The Boulevard, according to the large sign spanning two lanes and the median strip, proclaiming it in 1960’s style the “Gateway to Mid-City.” I could imagine Edsels and various other chromed and finned autos passing beneath it. The sign stands at the west end of the boulevard in the heart of San Diego. Beginning in La Mesa the entire six- or seven-mile length comprises the backbone of an extended and vibrant commercial district.

Just past the sign the old route then turned south onto Park Boulevard, soon curving down through beautiful Balboa Park where a light fog from the Pacific wafted through the eucalyptus trees. Our track turned once more to the west, finally entering the downtown district where US 80 terminated. I didn’t try to find the exact spot, it had changed a few times over the years anyway. We were within shouting distance and besides, I wanted to shift gears and get started on what is California’s most historic road while we still had plenty of daylight ahead of us.

The El Camino Real -- the Royal Highway, Highway of the King -- was established by California’s Spanish colonizers beginning in 1769. It linked California’s 21 missions and 4 presidios from San Diego to Sonoma. Over time it became the first major north-south route in the west. With the creation of the US highway system in 1926, the El Camino Real became the primary route of the southern section of US 101. From the Mexican border 101 extended to Olympia, Washington. North of San Francisco 101 is known as the Redwood Highway, and even farther north in Oregon and Washington, it has always carried the name Pacific Coast Highway. It wasn’t until 1937 that the El Camino Real and the Redwood Highway were joined by the Golden Gate Bridge.

By rights I should have started my 101 drive at Presidio Park in San Diego’s Old Town, but I was impatient to escape the city. I decided to jump ahead via I-5 to where the El Camino had diverged onto what is now Torrey Pines Road, near La Jolla. It’s a beautiful drive, lined by the tall pines and wending up a fairly substantial grade from the beach area. This hill presented a challenge to those early travelers. At the top Torrey Pines Road is transformed into the main boulevard for one of the most concentrated high-tech strips in the country. Scripps and Saulk Institutes, UC San Diego, and many other leading edge research facilities line the drive.

El Camino Bell at Torrey Pines Road by jkbrown

I hadn’t seen any signs indicating the El Camino connection here until near the northern end of this stretch. There I saw one of the traditional El Camino bell route markers. Having lived in various places up and down California over the years, I recognized it immediately. It was painted blue-green rather than the traditional mission brown I remembered, but it was unmistakable. These route markers have graced the El Camino for 100 years. They seemed to have fallen out of favor for a while, but I read recently that the state is installing over 500 new bells.

Just north of the marker the road descends down to the beach at where we stopped for a short romp. I didn’t notice the “no dogs” sign until we were back at the parking lot. Oh well -- no one complained.

The next sections of the El Camino that we traveled were studies in contrast. We’ll get to them in our next column.

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