{"id":5134,"date":"2019-01-31T05:41:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T05:41:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backroadswest.com\/blog\/salt-creek-trail-death-valley-copy\/"},"modified":"2022-11-14T00:30:40","modified_gmt":"2022-11-14T00:30:40","slug":"carrizo-plain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.backroadswest.com\/blog\/carrizo-plain\/","title":{"rendered":"San Andreas Fault Through Carrizo Plain"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Continuing our series of road trips along California\u2019s infamous San Andreas Fault, this tour takes you through the remote Carrizo Plain National Monument, which is located roughly halfway between Bakersfield and San Luis Obispo.\u00a0<\/strong> No other place in California shows off the long and straight ridgelines created by the fault\u2019s grinding action better than the Carrizo Plain.\u00a0 Plus, this single, lonely road through the monument can definitely be classified as a \u201cback road\u201d.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Grasslands<\/h3>

Along with geologic sightseeing, the Carrizo Plain boasts some of the last remaining native grasslands in California.\u00a0 This was the primary reason why it was granted National Monument status in 2001.\u00a0 At one time, most of California\u2019s Central Valley (San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys) were completely covered with the same grasslands seen at Carrizo.\u00a0 Since the 1800s, those grasslands in the Central Valley have been replaced with agriculture and are now one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.<\/p>

We would often take the road through Carrizo Plain as a shortcut when going on a long-weekend jaunt to the Central California coast when we lived in Southern California.\u00a0 The road is a mix of eroded pavement and dirt and stretches for 45 miles from Hwy SR 166 (in the south) to SR 58 (in the north).\u00a0 The road is drivable by most vehicles and is notoriously dusty with patches of bumpy washboard.\u00a0 We\u2019ve driven our car on it several times.\u00a0<\/p>