Southern California Regional Rocks and Roads

SoCalRegion Discord?

Michael F Ballard — Mon, 19 Oct 2026 00:37:55 +0000

Gauging interest in a SoCalRegion Discord channel. Discussions would be “limited” to the topics covered by the site. I put that in quotes as the site has many topics to cover. If interested, vote below and let me know!

Pictorial Guide Conversion Complete

Michael F Ballard — Sun, 18 Oct 2026 01:36:19 +0000

It was a lot of work, but I think the conversion is complete. I also merged the I-5 pages and added navigational aids to others. Let me know if you find any pages that aren’t converted or have some issue. The goal is to be able to make global changes easier instead of having to ...

Updates in Progress for Pictorial Guide pages

Michael F Ballard — Sat, 17 Oct 2026 00:35:52 +0000

I’ve been working on a new layout for the Pictorial Guide to Southern California Highways pages and am now in the process of converting all the pages. No information will be lost, and all links will remain the same. This is just a refresh of the layout with some additional navigational aides. To see the ...

New Highway 99 App

Michael F Ballard — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 05:16:13 +0000

From the Historic Highway 99 Association of California:

New Highway Tour App – Beta Testing

Michael F Ballard — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 03:33:54 +0000

We’ve been working on a new app for our Highway Tours for US 6, US 99, US 466, and the Ridge Route. We’re looking for testers before we roll this out fully. Use the form below to sign up for testing.

Highway Tour Update

Michael F Ballard — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 19:52:05 +0000

I’ve just completed a major update to the US 6, US 99, US 466, and Ridge Route tours. All now have a clickable map on the Tour Index page. You can see all the stops before you take the journey as well as see the listing. Additional maps are coming soon for Foothill Blvd as ...

New Pages – Historic Roads and “News and Updates”

Michael F Ballard — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:57:19 +0000

In 2014, I moved this website from basic HTML to WordPress. This new format allowed me to write separate posts instead of standard pages when something came up that didn’t quite fit a specific page. In the 12 years following, I’ve posted quite a bit, a fair amount of which has more or less been ...

Website Updates – Phase: Photos

Michael F Ballard — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 18:27:05 +0000

This website has undergone many changes over the years and some not for the better. In times past, there were speed issues (prior to mass broadband Internet), space issues requiring reduction of images in both size and shape, as well as other limitations during the period. Now that the main parts of the site have ...

From the Archives – 1964

Michael F Ballard — Mon, 07 Sep 2026 23:53:18 +0000

Barstow has grown quite a bit since this photo was taken. Shown here, the original Main Street exit, which was originally built as a freeway-freeway interchange meant for US 466 / State 58 and connected Main Street (Former US 66 and US 91) to the then-new freeway. The Main Street interchange was redone in 1998 ...

Site Redesign Now Online!

Michael F Ballard — Sun, 06 Sep 2026 23:39:15 +0000

The site has now been updated with a new look. Most pages are the same layout but others, such as the Pictorial Guide to Southern California Highways, has a completely different look. In time, other pages will get a refresh. If you spot anything that doesn’t look right, let me know!