US101 Highway Photos Index Page

US101 south of San Francisco was submitted to be an interstate in the early days of the interstate highway system (and was never accepted, like 58 East of 99, US50 West of Carson City, I238 South of I580, and Highway 4.)

This route used to start in San Diego. It now starts in the maze in Los Angeles. It is one of California's great scenic routes, and it is a lot more interesting than taking I5 or 99 from Los Angeles to San Francisco. I5 is about 40 miles more direct, however. Even 99 is more direct (via 152) from San José to Los Angeles.

This route was been improved over Cuesta Grade (north of San Luis Obispo) in the late 1990s. That was a pretty creepy section if you ask me. And it was improved over Conejo Grade between 1986 - 1987. That Ventura county section had been a narrow freeway in a steep area. The Prunedale section was improved from about 2013 to 2017. I had seen near misses out there over the years. The bottleneck between Cochrane Road and 85 / Bernal Rd disappeared in May 2003. It was also widened in Los Angeles (the Ventura Freeway section) in the early 1990s. The Blossom Hill to Cochrane Road section was not built until 1984, and before that you had to take Cochrane Road to Monterey Highway until Blossom Hill (with about nine traffic lights.). It had about eight traffic lights in Santa Bárbara until 1992, and driving through there could be a nightmare in the 1980s. Other than that, a lot of it has changed little since the early 1970s, if not earlier. Most of US101 is 65 MPH south of San Francisco, with a 70 MPH section from King City to San Miguel, and one 55 MPH section north of San Luis Obispo. My photos are arranged by region here. In the future I will do trips to the San Ardo and Bradley section if I can but I will never go south of about Bradley again ever. And I will get photos in the San Jose to Palo Alto section. US101 is a highway with a lot of history to it. Out here you see people going from Southern California to Oregon.

Santa Bárbara County

San Luis Obispo County

Monterey County

Former US101

US Highway 101 Exits