CALIFORNIA STATE ROUTE 18

(Redirected from California State Highway 18)

'State Route 18' in the U.S. State of California currently runs from State Route 210 in San Bernardino to State Route 138 near Adelanto. It is the primary route into the San Bernardino Mountains and has two discontinunities: one in Big Bear Lake, the other in Victorville.

Contents

Route description

State law

References

External links

Route description

Route 18 currently begins at State Route 210 (which as of January 2005 is signed as State Route 30) and quickly enters the San Bernardino Mountains as a four-lane expressway. The route climbs north at a gentle grade until it turns east, where it begins to offer panoramic views of San Bernardino and the Inland Empire. Hence, this portion of Route 18 is known as the 'Rim of the World Highway'. After meeting State Route 138 at Crestline, the expressway reverts to a two-lane mountain road. It meets two other highways, State Route 189 just east of Arrowhead Highlands and State Route 173 in Lake Arrowhead, before running over State Route 330 in Running Springs. Route 18 continues through several valleys and near ski resorts before reaching a summit. At that point, Route 18 again runs along a lengthy mountain ridge, offering more spectacular scenery at an even higher elevation. At its west junction with State Route 38 near the west corner of Big Bear Lake, Route 18 jogs across a dam and travels along the south shore of Big Bear Lake. After going through the City of Big Bear Lake, it overlaps with Route 38 (considered the first discontinuity since Big Bear Blvd. has no clear signage of where 18 turns off) and moves from the south to the north side of Bear Valley east of both Big Bear Lake and the Big Bear City airport before it descends from the mountains to the desert on the northerly side of the mountains, first heading northeast, briefly north, and then northwest.
Route 18 at this point follows the cities on the north face of the San Bernardino Mountains in the Mojave Desert: In Lucerne Valley, it intersects State Route 247 and then turns west for 21 miles (junctioning with major cutoff Bear Valley Road). It becomes an expressway '(Happy Trails Highway', given for the High Desert's residency and final resting place of the 1950's singing cowboy, Roy Rogers')' through Apple Valley and Victorville. It joins with Interstate 15 inside of Victorville (this is considered a discontinuity, since the freeway entries refer to I-15 only and not California 18, which has partial route markings along the freeway, mainly on Southbound I-15) for a few miles to the southeast and south before taking off west across the desert, reducing into a two-lane highway again outside of Victorville and meeting U.S. Highway 395 in Adelanto, crosses into Los Angeles County as the beginning of county-named Pearblossom Highway and ending at California State Highway 138 east of Llano.
Route 18 thus takes an unusual path in the shape of a question mark. On most of the signs of the highway, cardinal descriptions are not posted below the route markers, since it does not clearly go either west/east or north/south.

State law

'Legal Definition of Route 18:' California Streets and Highways Code, Chapter 2, Article 3, Section 318

References

1. January 1, 2006 California Log of Bridges on State Highways
2. California Highways: State Route 18

External links

★ WestCoast Roads- California 18

★ Caltrans: Route 18 highway conditions

★ California Highways: Route 18

★ The Big Highways Page: California Route 18