Page:Big Oak Flat Road (HAER No. CA-147) written historical and descriptive data.pdf/13

 of unstable rockslides before reaching Rainbow View (called "New Inspiration Point" in 1900). From there, the road winds around the side of the bluff to cross Fireplace and Cascade Creek. The Cascade Creek footbridge dates from about 1965, and rests on twentieth century abutments; the old road crossing was over a wooden truss in a slightly different location. From there, the road ambles gently up over rolling country to a crossing of Tamarack Creek at the Tamarack Flat Campground. This section of the road was built by Chinese laborers, and is of cruder construction than the section built by the Italians. From Tamarack Creek, a 3-mile section of the road north to Tioga Road is open as an access road for the campground.

From the Tioga Road, the old road is closed again to motor vehicles, but can be followed as foot trail northwest to Crane Flat. Near Crane Flat, the road is open to northbound traffic for 5.8 miles through the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias to Hodgdon Meadow and the Big Oak Flat Entrance. Many other traces of the old road can be followed outside the park, including the vertiginous Old Priest Grade above Moccasin Creek.

Most of the old roadway is in fair condition, though abandoned sections have been eroded severely at crossings of streams and their branches. At the rockslides, several sections have been ripped out; in other stretches, stone lies on and over the old roadway. The section between El Capitan and Tamarack Flat passes through designated wilderness and is no longer maintained.