(Kingman, Ariz.) -- Needles -- Barstow -- San Bernardino -- Los Angeles -- Santa Monica; US 66

Arizona Line to Santa Monica, 314.8 m.

• Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. parallels route between Needles and Victorville.
• Accomodations scanty in desert sections; gas, oil, water, and food available at desert hamlets, but extra supplies should be carried; sleeping accommodations limited to tourist camps, except in larger towns.
• Paved roadbed; extreme high temperatures between Kingman and San Bernardino in midsummer, occasional heavy windstorms in March and April.

West of the green banks of the Colorado River, US 66 traverses the arid Mojave Desert, a bleak plateau furrowed by scores of untillable valleys, shimmering in the fierce sunlight. The road mounts and dips in and out of these sinks, unrelieved in their desolation except after rare rains, when a thorny mantle of delicate-hued vegetation blazes into flower. Ahead rises the blue bulk of the San Gabriel Mountains. The highway runs steadily toward them, between hills of jumbled beauty, passing through widely spaced "towns" -- mere groups of tourist cabins about gas stations and lunch rooms -- to the desert city of Barstow.

US 66 crosses the Arizona Line, 0 m., 54 miles west of Kingman, Ariz. (see Arizona Guide), on TOPOCK (Ind., bridge) BRIDGE, which spans the deceptive Colorado (ruddy) River -- here a lazy-looking stream that periodically goes on a bridge-smashing rampage -- and drops US 66 onto California soil. The route follows the mesa edging the river with its fringe of green willows and sycamores.

At 1 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Left on this road to ROCK MAZE, 0.5 m., above the river on a high bluff. Resembling at a distance a plowed field, this work of prehistoric aborigines is believed to have been a place for funeral rites. Rows of brownish pebbles, paralleling one another several feet apart in intersecting, roughly concentric patterns, extend over several acres. A local legend relates that the spirits of the dead, floating down the Colorado, entered the maze and shook off the evil spirits chasing them by losing them in the tangled pathways.

At 9.6 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Left on this road to NEEDLES MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 0.3 m.

NEEDLES, 15.5 m. (481 alt., 3,144 pop.), spreading over a flood plain, is an oasis approached through a lane of tamarind and pepper trees. Founded as a way station after the Santa Fe tracks were laid in 1883, it was named for an isolated group of needle-like spires visible 15 miles southeastward in Arizona.

The railroad yards provide Needles' chief occupation. The mines that honeycomb the mountains roundabout yield gold, nonmetallic ores, and semiprecious stones, such as agates, moonstones, and turquoise. In the fertile bottom lands, where Mojave Indians till many of the ranches, date palms lift waving fronds beside green truck gardens and citrus orchards.

A sub-tropical city, Needles seeks shelter from the sweltering heat in the shade of the palms, cottonwoods, tamarisks, and pepper trees that border its streets. A miscellany of business buildings surrounds the park that fronts the grayish stucco railroad station. In this torrid square, where temperatures often are 112° at midnight, regal Washingtonia palms, pepper trees, and alders border the grass. Couples stroll here, children play around the ornamental cannon, and swarthy Mojaves, garbed in gaudy scarlets, blues, and yellows, loiter about.

US 66 climbs the low bleached hills back of Needles and plunges westward into the MOJAVE DESERT (see Tour 11a, also Natural Setting), a region of fantastic formations, once swamped under ocean waters, then upheaved to bold heights, and finally buried under lava, mud and ashes. The unevenly sloping, valley-furrowed desert floor is ringed with mountain chains whose changing hues -- sepia, gray, lavender -- fuse in the distance into a dull blue. Their bristling outlines and the glistening salt flats of occasional dry lakes provide the only variation to the parched, monotonous wastes. Cacti rear their rigid, spiny leaves in profusion. Here and there jut the stark branches of the Spanish bayonet and Joshua tree. After the heavy rains which come at infrequent intervals, the desert blazes with colorful flowers.

JAVA, 22 m. (936 alt.), a knot of dull reddish frame buildings bordering the tracks, is a desert railroad stop.

The cacti now become more conspicuous. Most widespread is the commonest western variety, the cholla. In times of great drought the cholla is eaten by cattle; a single spark of fire will ignite the whole plant, burn off the spines, and leave juicy green fodder. Interspersed are barrel cacti, stout cylinders sometimes six feet high. These contain a fibrous pulp, which, after the top is cut off, can be pounded to yield a liquid that assuages thirst; the Indians cooked their meat in the liquid with the aid of hot stones placed in the open barrels.

SOUTH PASS, 33 m. (2,700 alt.), is a cluster of adobe buildings offering tourist accommodations with a sign, "Water Free With Purchases Only."

From the slope west of the pass, the flat desert floor seems to be a fertile plain because of the deceptive greenery of the creosote bush. At intervals appear the tall towers of the Boulder Dam Power Line, webbed with glinting strands of cables, and at 37.3 m., the trim, red-roofed stucco bungalows (L) of the section workers on the line.

US 66 gradually climbs a craggy pass through the PAIUTE RANGE.

MOUNTAIN SPRINGS, 43 m. (2,720 alt., 5 pop.), at the summit, is a collection of neat little buildings -- gas station, lunch room, and tourist cabins -- near an irrelevant cross (L) on the hilltop, erected solely to induce passing tourists to stop and ask questions.

As the highway rounds the hump of the pass, snow-crowned MOUNT ANTONIO (Old Baldy) appears, towering in the far distance above the nearer mountain ranges.

At 55.5 m. is a junction with a dirt road.

Right on this road 22.3 m. to MITCHELL'S CAVERNS (guide service; adm. $1, children 50¢; campground with free wood and water). The chilly, cavernous chambers, hollowed out of carboniferous limestone, form an underground labyrinth requiring three hours to traverse. More than 20 entrances have been discovered. Within, the ashes of aboriginal cave dwellers' campfires cover the floors. The caverns are frescoed, pillared, and ornamented with stalagmites and stalactites.

The area around ESSEX, 56 m. (1,700 alt., 30 pop.), sparsely vegetated though it appears, pastures herds of cattle with its greasewood and bunch-grass.

US 66 continues over a vast plain, sparsely studded with the desert brush -- a dull-toned land of mystic hues and vistas -- between bright-colored CLIPPER MOUNTAINS (R), a jumble of volcanic rock turned yellow and brown by oxidation, and the OLD WOMAN MOUNTAINS (L), where the almost extinct Nelson mountain sheep clamber over the crags.

DANBY, 65 m. (1,353 alt.), a cluster of tourist cabins about a service station, is at the foot of a gradual ascent over bleak, unchanging terrain. SUMMIT, 73.5 m., and CHAMBLESS, 76.5 m. (800 alt.), mere dots on the desert's face, provide gas pumps, tourist camps, cafés.

Far out on the desert (L), at 84.5 m., wisps of smoke are seen rising from the stacks of the CALIFORNIA SALT WORKS, which mine pure salt in 40-foot shafts. Eastward, like a ruined castle, rises an abandoned GYPSUM MILL. Nearby (L) are the yellowish, salt-incrusted flats of BRISTOL DRY LAKE, its dry parts covered by puffy, powder-like "self-rising" soil in which a man would sink knee-deep. The lake's spectacular mirages often create the illusion of a sheet of shimmering water, sometimes of cathedrals, cities, and mountain peaks floating through the sky.

AMBOY, 87 m. (614 alt., 95 pop.), is another typical highway stop, blistered by temperatures that often soar above 120° in midsummer.

At 87 m. is the junction with a dirt road.

Left on this road to the base of AMBOY CRATER, 1.5 m., where a footpath leads up the side of the cone of dark gray pumice and lava, rising 200 feet above craggy lava beds.

On the vast desert, here and there, lies an abandoned auto, sometimes on its back like an upturned turtle, or an occasional little pile of rocks, marking the boundary claims of some hopeful prospector or, topped with a weathered cross, the resting place of some luckless wanderer.

BAGDAD (accommodations), 95.5 m. (787 alt., 20 pop.), is merely a shell of the rip-roaring camp that thrived here when the War Eagle and Orange Blossom gold mines to the north were active. The few old buildings that escaped destruction by fire in 1918 are threatened by fierce desert winds, as a huge oil tank with its sides blown in attests. Except for one other spot, Bagdad has less rain than any other place in or near the Mojave Desert -- a mean annual average of but 2.3 inches; in four out of 20 years it has had no rainfall at all.

For 20 miles westward US 66 covers a desolate terrain almost as primitive as it was thousands of years ago. The railroad tracks are dotted with lonely stops without accommodations, which bear such curiously incongruous names as Siberia and Klondike.

In comparison with neighboring "towns," LUDLOW, 115.5 m. (1,782 alt., 150 pop.), is a metropolis. Here two narrow-gage railroads of the Tonopah & Tidewater connect with the Santa Fe.

The SLEEPING BEAUTY, a formation resembling a dormant, smiling human face is outlined by the crest of the CADY MOUNTAINS, northwestward. Directly north appears the yellowish blotch of LUDLOW DRY LAKE, where experiments have been made in processing the lake bed's fine "flour" gold.

The landscape at 129.5 m., suddenly losing its vegetation, darkens from gray to coal black. Above a 6-mile-wide lava field looms MOUNT PISGAH (L), an extinct volcano with a deep crater in the summit of its symmetrical 250-foot cone.

MOJAVE WATER CAMP, 136.6 m., and GUYMAN, 137 m., each has its small knot of sun-bleached buildings. Northwest of Guyman lies the glittering, salt-crusted bed of TROY DRY LAKE.

In a dry-farming region is NEWBERRY, 146.5 m. (1,631 alt., 175 pop.), once named simply Water. At the spring that flows beneath the overhanging black precipices of the NEWBERRY MOUNTAINS, early travelers quenched their thirst. Newberry is a refreshing green oasis of alders, willows, and cottonwoods clustering about that desert rarity -- a swimming pool. Water is a prized commodity. Trains of eighteen and twenty 10,000-gallon tank cars haul it daily as far as Bagdad for use in locomotive boilers. Melons, alfalfa, and apricots are shipped from here.

DAGGETT, 158 m. (2,006 alt., 102 pop.), a gay camp when gold and silver mines in this region were working at capacity, is virtually deserted, though still a shipping point for the mines.

Along the tree-lined dry wash of the Mojave River, US 66 travels to BARSTOW, 167 m. (2,106 alt., 2,549 pop.), once a desert junction for overland wagon trains and later an outfitting point for Death Valley expeditions. It has now cast off its frontier-town aspect. Five-and-ten-cent stores and beauty parlors, auto agencies, and cocktail bars line the principal avenue. Barstow was the center for gold and silver mining in the 1890's when the present ghost town of Calico, in the Calico Mountains, was in its heyday. The town is now a division point of the Santa Fe Ry., whose shops employ 85 per cent of its workmen. On surrounding farms, irrigated from wells, alfalfa is the principal crop.

Barstow is at the junction with US 466-91 (see Tour 11).

Section b. BARSTOW to SAN BERNARDINO; 77.1 m. US 66

This section of US 66 traverses barren and burning expanses of desert and crosses the heaped masses of the San Bernardino Mountains.

South of BARSTOW, 0 m., US 66 runs through billowing desert country; only the cottonwoods and willows on the banks of the Mojave River (R) relieve the tedium of rolling landscape.

LENWOOD, 5.2 m. (2,229 alt., 200 pop.), is encircled by slate-colored elevations blanketed with desert growths. In the surrounding country are a few sprawling alfalfa fields and an occasional chicken ranch.

HODGE, 11.7 m. (2,150 alt., 102 pop.), is a supply center. Its brick grammar school, perched on a slight rise (L) serves the far-flung desert district between Barstow and Oro Grande (see below).

The Mojave River nears the highway in Hodge. Screwbean mesquite and green desert willows grow abundantly along its banks. Distantly, the harsh, jagged mass of IRON MOUNTAIN protrudes (R) islandlike from the sand and gravel wastes.

HELENDALE, 21.8 m. (2,424 alt., 150 pop.), is encompassed, oasis-like, by waving alfalfa and corn.

Beyond the cultivated circle of the Helendale district, the tawny desert spreads away. SHADOW MOUNTAIN, holding turquoise-bearing porphyry deposits that were worked by desert-dwelling Indians -- predecessors of the Mojave -- looms indistinctly on the western horizon (R) of HELENDALE MESA.

In the shade of wide-spreading sycamores and spirelike poplars, ORO GRANDE, 31.7 m. (2,648 alt., 600 est. pop.), sprawls along the highway, dreaming of the prosperous gold-boom days of the 1880's. Its population skyrocketed to 2,000 when in 1878 gold was discovered in the OLD SILVER MOUNTAINS and the GRANITE MOUNTAINS (L). After 1885 gold production diminished until in 1928 the last of the mines closed.

Crossing the Mojave River, here a turgid, muddy stream with a year-round flow, US 66 sweeps south through alfalfa fields and cattle ranches rich with foot-high bunch grass. As the highway mounts a long, easy grade, the fantastic yucca trees appear. The countryside soon takes on a verdant, cultivated appearance. The Mojave River becomes a stream of respectable size, serpentining between broad acres of farm land, fruit groves, and chicken and turkey ranches.

VICTORVILLE, 35.7 m. (2,716 alt., 2,500 pop.), is a curious blend of the present and the past -- a past carefully preserved. This was Mormon Crossing from 1878 to 1885, until the river camp, by then grown to a roaring mining town, was named Victor -- later Victorville. Mining here had dwindled to insignificant proportions by 1900, but the characteristic false front frontier buildings remained, attracting, a decade and a half later, the attention of the young motion-picture industry. From 1914 to 1937 the town and its "wild West" back country were used as the locale for more than 200 films. The first picture made here was a William S. Hart "quickie" in 1914. From 1916 to 1924 Hart made an average of two pictures a year in the vicinity, among them Wild Bill Hickok, O'Malley of the Mounted, and Tumbleweed. When the resemblance of D Street to the popular conception of Main Street in a "roaring" western town attracted other film producers, such western stars as Harry Carey, Tom Mix, and Hoot Gibson began performing in "horse operas" here. Will Rogers, too, was a frequent and popular visitor. The town's first talking picture, In Old Arizona, starred Warner Baxter. A Boulder Dam high-tension power line was used as a "prop" in Slim, starring Pat O'Brien and Henry Fonda as linesmen. Victorville admits its attempts to recapture its waning movie trade. The atmosphere of OLD TOWN across the railroad tracks (L) is zealously preserved. Even when new ranch houses, corrals, and stables are built in the cattle range back country, they are constructed in the old style to meet the demands of location scouts. Meanwhile, Victorville pursues a more prosaic destiny as the trade center for irrigated farming and poultry and cattle ranches, and as headquarters for quarrying and mining interests.

In the heart of town is (L) the ARENA OF THE VICTORVILLE NON-PROFESSIONAL RODEO (two days each Oct.; adm. $1), sponsored by 50 Hollywood writers and actors. Only cowboys working on the ranges of the Southwest are permitted to compete.

US 66 crosses rolling desert country again toward immense blue ranges.

MILLER'S CORNER, 47.7 m. (3,050 alt.), has a gas station and a few cabins for motorists.

US 66 now sweeps across BALDY MESA (3,000 alt.), a vast, sun-scorched expanse of mesquite and scattered yucca trees.

At 49.6 m. is a junction with US 395 (see Tour 6d), which unites with US 66 for about 30 miles southward.

As the desert surrenders to chaparral-covered foothills, US 66 crosses at 53 m. a boundary of the SAN BERNARDINO NATIONAL FOREST, a preserve of 804,045 acres, containing more than a billion board feet of merchantable timber -- sugar and Jeffrey pine, big cone spruce, incense cedar and tamarack, among other species. It is maintained principally for watershed protection. A number of streams and lakes in the high country furnish water for hydroelectric power and irrigation, and afford excellent trout fishing.

The mountains draw together to form the mouth of CAJON (Sp., box) PASS, through the Sierra Madre Mountains, for nearly a century the southeastern gateway for overland travel to the coast, since William Wolfskill blazed the Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to Los Angeles through it in 1831. From the summit, 54 m. (4,301 alt.), is an inspiring view over mountains, deserts, orchards, and vineyards. US 66 makes its descent in a series of twisting slopes.

At 59 m. is a junction with State 2.

1. Left here to LAKE ARROWHEAD, 24.3 m. (see below).

2. Right on State 2 through a region of grotesque sandstone formations, tooled by centuries of wind and weather into freak shapes, pockmarked with windholes and caves.

At 1.4 m. is a junction with a dirt road.

Left here to LONE PINE CANYON, 2 m. The main course of the SAN ANDREAS RIFT, one of the two geologic faults in the forest, runs up this canyon. Hundreds of thousands of years ago in a rolling, uneven plain spread out where the San Gabriel Mountains now rise. This ancient plain represented the eroded remnants of a range dating from a still more remote period. A mighty underground earth movement began which obliterated the remaining traces of the earlier range and eventually thrust upward a vast, jagged mass. The upward thrust came between two faults whose courses are still clearly defined. The north fault, San Andreas Rift, extends from Cajon Pass through Lone Pine Canyon. Characterized as a "live" or "active" fault, it extends two-thirds the length of California, for an unknown distance northwest under the Pacific Ocean, and across Mexico into the Caribbean Sea. It has caused many California earthquakes, including the San Francisco disturbance in 1906.

Stunted yuccas appear in the sagebrush fields away from the highway toward the base of the range. The road here parallels the route of the Mormons, who in 1851 came through the mountains to settle San Bernardino Valley. Attempting to follow the trail blazed through Cajon Pass in 1847 by an earlier detachment of the Mormon Battalion, the party could not maneuver its heavy wagons through "The Narrows" and was compelled to seek this route farther west.

At 8.3 m. the main route turns L. from State 138 on Wildhorse Canyon Rd.

WRIGHTWOOD, 13.5 m. (6,000 alt., 50 pop.), in Swartout Valley is a conifer sheltered year-round resort (all accommodations). From 500 to 600 persons vacation here during the height of the seasons.

BIG PINES CIVIC CENTER, 16.9 m. (6,864 alt.), is the heart of the recreational and administrative activities of BIG PINES RECREATION PARK (all types of accommodations and recreational facilities), supervised by the Los Angeles County Department of Playgrounds and Recreation. It consists of two divisions: Big Pines (2,700 acres) and Prairie Fork (1,620 acres) with 17 public campgrounds (25¢ a day; $2.50 for calendar year).

A NATURE THEATER, in a natural, pine-rimmed bowl (L) near the Civic Center, is used for group meetings, free lectures, campfire programs, and picnics.

Left from Civic Center 12 m. on the left fork of Blue Ridge Rd. to PRAIRIE FORK COUNTY PARK (no accommodations).

At 17 m. on the main road is a junction with Table Mountain Rd.

Right on this road 1.5 m. ascending through conifer forests to the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION SOLAR OBSERVATORY, the primary purpose of which is the recording of sunspots (open 1:30-5 Thurs.).

A well-equipped public campground, 18.8 m., lies (R) in a parklike grove of giant pines and incense cedars.

JACKSON LAKE, 19.6 m., in a steep-sided gulch (L) rimmed with tall conifers, is the water-sports center of the area.

CAMP MANZANITA, 20 m., is fragrant with the sweetish aroma of the manzanita tree.

West of the WEST GATE RANGER STATION, 20.1 m. (6,150 alt.), at the Big Pines Recreation Park, the road goes down SHOEMAKER CANYON. As the 2,000-foot line is passed, hot desert air is felt.

At 28 m. is a junction with a paved road.

Left on this road 0.7 m. through BIG ROCK CREEK CANYON to a junction with a foot trail; R. on this trail 0.5 m. to DEVIL'S PUNCH BOWL, a region of vast, jumbled masses of sandstone. At some places marine fossils are embedded in the boulders of the creek bed.

At 2.2 m. on the paved road is one of a string of Forest Service camps.

VALYERMO (cabins) 28.2 m. (3,920 alt., 65 pop.), is a settlement in a bend of alder-grown Big Rock Creek.

VALYERMO CAMP FOR UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN, (L), 29.2 m., is maintained by the Los Angeles Police Department. Officers of the Crime Prevention Division of the Police Department, detailed to the camp, serve as cooks, waiters, gardeners, and handy men.

PALMDALE, 52.2 m. (2,669 alt., 1,224 pop.), is at the junction with US 6 (see Tour 7b).

US 66, roughly following (R) alder-grown CAJON CREEK, rolls smoothly downgrade to DEVORE, 67.1 m. (2,025 alt., 153 pop.). MOUNT SAN GORGONIO (11,485 alt.), looms into view.

The ARROWHEAD, a natural phenomenon on the face of Arrowhead Peak, is visible at 75.2 m.

At 75.3 m. US 66, broad and palm-lined, turns R., dividing the business district (L) of SAN BERNARDINO, 77.1 m. (1,073 alt, 37,486 pop.), seat of San Bernardino County. The name San Bernardino was given by a party of missionaries, soldiers, and Indians from the San Gabriel Mission (see below) under Padre Francisco Dumetz, who entered the valley on May 20, 1810, the feast day of San Bernardino of Siena. In 1851, Capt. Jefferson Hunt arrived in the valley with a party of 500 Mormons from Salt Lake, who bought Rancho San Bernardino for $77,000 in 1852, and laid out a city along the broad, spacious lines of Salt Lake City. The Mormons remained dominant here until 1857, when Brigham Young, anxious to center his flock in Utah, issued a recall. San Bernardino is today a railroad and fruit-packing center.

The mammoth NATIONAL ORANGE SHOW BUILDING, E and Mill Sts., is the setting for the city's leading event (held annually for 11 days beginning third Thurs. in Feb.; adm. 50¢). The show presents numerous structures built with columns of citrus fruits; frequently a million oranges, lemons, and grapefruit are employed to achieve the desired effects.

The SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY COURTHOUSE, on Arrowhead Ave. between Third and Fourth Sts., is on the site of a fort that was the first structure erected by the Salt Lake pioneers. The fort was a large walled enclosure, holding numerous buildings, including a school and meetinghouse, storehouses, and the colony offices.

In PIONEER PARK, Sixth and E Sts., are the Memorial Auditorium, commemorating World War participants; a Sailors' and Soldiers' Monument, dedicated to heroes of the Mexican, Civil, and Spanish-American Wars; and a PIONEER CABIN (open 9-5), housing a collection of early Mormon relics.

San Bernardino is at a junction with US 395 (see Tour 6e).

Left from San Bernardino on Third St. to Sierra Way (State 18); L. here in a serpentine ascent of WATERMAN CANYON in SAN BERNARDINO NATIONAL FOREST, 5.6 m.

At 7.9 m. is a junction with a private road; R. here 1 m. to a hot springs resort (rates reasonable), commanding a view of San Bernardino, Pomona, and San Gabriel Valleys from a 1,800-acre park. Dominating the region is the natural phenomenon from which the springs take their name -- the huge arrowhead on the slope of ARROWHEAD PEAK, behind and above the spa. The arrowhead consists of outcroppings of quartz and gray granite, grown over with whitish weeds and grass; it covers an area of seven-and-a-half acres.

An Indian legend relates that the Great White Father sent an "arrow of fire" to guide the Cahuilla westward after they had been driven from their homes by aggressive neighbors. The arrowhead finally rested on a mountainside with its point toward a fertile valley (San Bernardino) and boiling hot springs. A legend of Mormon origin is to the effect that Brigham Young had a vision in which he saw a mountain with a strange device upon it. When he learned of the discovery of the arrowhead by the Mormon Battalion in 1851, he knew it to be the mountain of his dream and ordered the establishment of a Mormon settlement in the valley below.

State 18 continues to a junction with the old Mormon Road, 16.7 m., marked (R) by the WAGON WHEEL MONUMENT. The 11-mile roadway was built in 1851 to facilitate transportation of timber for building homes in the valley; its terminus was a sawmill that the Mormons had established near the present Camp Seeley.

The route leaves the chaparral of the lower slopes and enters the big timber country of pine, spruce, and oak.

At 17 m. State 18 becomes Rim of the World Drive and curves steadily eastward, 8,000 feet above sea level.

At 17.1 m. is a junction with Crestline Rd.

Left on this road 3 m. to CAMP SEELEY, a year-round playground maintained by the city of Los Angeles. The lodge (rates reasonable) is the social and musical center.

From ARROWHEAD HIGHLAND SUMMIT, 19.9 m. (5,174 alt.), slopes billow down to green valleys far below. A few yards from the road (R) is SPHINX ROCK, a corroded formation, 50 feet high, in the shape of a human head.

At 20 m. is a junction with an unpaved road.

Left on this winding road to CRESTLINE VILLAGE, 3 m. (4,850 alt., 500 pop.), shopping center for nearby resorts. Lying in a forest of evergreens and pines, the village has a view of desert, valley, and mountains.

CRESTLINE BOWL is frequently the setting for plays, pageants, and dramas. Nearby are two ski tracks, a quarter-mile toboggan slide, and three ashcan slides.

The route continues upward on the well-banked highway. (Drinking fountains every 2 miles.)

BAYLIS PARK PICNIC GROUNDS is at 20.8 m. (free; tables, grilles, water, sanitary conveniences).

RIM OF THE WORLD MONUMENT, 21.6 m. (6,150 alt.), is a crude boulder pile, dedicated by John Steven McGroarty, poet laureate of California, in 1932 in delayed commemoration of the highway's completion.

From CREST SUMMIT, 23.7 m. (5,756 alt.), is a comprehensive view southward. The drive drops gradually, circling buttes and plunging through parallel walls of dense forests. Here and there, through openings in the pines, the roofs of distant lodges and resorts appear.

At 24.5 m. is a junction with Arrowhead Lake Rd.

Left on this well-paved road 2 m. through a narrow, heavily timbered canyon to ARROWHEAD VILLAGE (5,109 alt., 510 pop.), on the south shore of LAKE ARROWHEAD, made up of shops, hotels, theaters, cafés, and dance halls, largely in the Norman style. Roads and footpaths radiate to the innumerable resorts on the forested rim of the lake, from auto camps to luxury hotels.

Right from Arrowhead Village 3 m. on Lake Rd. to ARROWHEAD DAM. Before the dam was built in 1901 to impound spring and drainage waters, the present lake region was a tree-studded, dry basin.

SKY FOREST POST OFFICE, (L), 25.6 m. on the main road, serves a few scattered mountain homes (garage and fueling accommodations).

At 33.6 m. is a junction with an unpaved road.

Right on this road 0.7 m. to tiny ARROWBEAR LAKE, on the shores of which is the VILLAGE OF ARROWBEAR (7,800 alt., 75 pop.), with a post office and general store. Scattered along the lake front are numerous camps (cabins; low rates).

Rim of the World Drive rolls eastward in a succession of curves along the crest of the San Bernardino Range.

At 34.8 m. is a junction with Green Valley Rd.

Left on this paved road 4.5 m. to GREEN VALLEY LAKE, a tiny body of water in the verdant depths of Green Valley. Hundreds of privately owned lodges cling to the steeply sloping mountainsides beneath the tall cone-bearing pines and spruce.

At 37.6 m. is a junction with a hiking trail.

Right 3 m. on this trail up forested slopes to a lookout station on KELLER PEAK (7,863 alt.).

Rim of the World Drive drops gradually, for about 6 miles, and at 45.6 m. crosses the top of BIG BEAR DAM. There was a small natural lake here in 1845, when Benjamin Davis Wilson, for whom Mount Wilson was named, and a party of men searched the region for Indians who had been stealing cattle from ranchers. They shot 22 bears on the trip; from this incident the valley received its name. Gold was discovered here in 1860, and in the subsequent brief gold rush, roads were built and scores of small shacks sprang up. By 1880 the district was almost deserted. The first dam was built in 1884, to provide San Bernardino Valley cities with water. The present dam, 6,750 feet high, was completed in 1911. The reservoir, BIG BEAR LAKE, seven miles long, has become the center of a very popular year-round playground thronged with resorts.

From PINE KNOT VILLAGE, 50.1 m. (6,750 alt., 750 pop.), commercial center of the Big Bear resort district, radiate a network of roads and trails.

Rim of the World Drive roughly follows the contour of Big Bear Lake to BIG BEAR CITY, 54.9 m. (6,860 alt., 500 pop.), on part of the former 27,000-acre Baldwin estate.

BALDWIN LAKE, 58.6 m. (6,674 alt.), a natural catch basin for mountain water, is normally about one-fifth the size of Big Bear Lake, but, unlike the latter, has attracted few visitors.

Section c. SAN BERNARDINO to SANTA MONICA; 71.1 m. US 66

West of San Bernardino US 66 runs along the base of the Sierra Madre Mountains through the heart of a picture-postcard landscape -- orange groves overlooked by snowcapped peaks. The tile-roofed stucco towns among the orchards along the way are starting points for roads and trails into the forested mountains.

West of SAN BERNARDINO, 0 m., is RIALTO, 3 m. (1,203 alt., 1,642 pop.), with several orange-packing plants. From here US 66 runs through billowing foothills past miles of citrus groves and vineyards.

The boulevard skirts the northern edge of FONTANA, 5.2 m. (1,242 alt., 6,120 pop.), in a section of small citrus, grape, walnut, poultry, and rabbit farms.

West of Fontana vineyards cover the foothills, dotted with wineries.

CUCAMONGA, 14.5 m. (1,220 alt., 2,040 pop.), named for CUCAMONGA PEAK (8,911 alt.), the shopping center of a grape- and olive-growing district, has several wineries.

UPLAND, 17 m. (1,210 alt., 4,713 pop.), is a citrus-packing community with nine fruit-packing plants, surrounded by 6,000 acres of oranges and lemons.

CLAREMONT, 19.4 m. (1,155 alt., 2,719 pop.), in the midst of citrus groves and vineyards, is a city of tree-lined streets and attractive residences. It has a citrus-packing plant and a number of small factories, but is essentially a college town.

POMONA COLLEGE was founded in Pomona in 1887 by the Reverend Charles B. Sumner, a New England Congregational minister. The following January the Santa Fe Railway gave 500 acres of land for a campus here; an unfinished hotel, now Sumner Hall, was the first college building. In 1894 the enrollment was 47; in 1937 it was 900. The buildings, of various architectural styles, are scattered over 24 tree-shaded city blocks. In 1927 Pomona became the sponsor of a plan for a group of affiliated colleges, Claremont Colleges, Inc., of which Pomona (co-educational) was the first unit, and Scripps College the second.

The 50-acre campus of SCRIPPS COLLEGE FOR WOMEN is cut by city streets. Scripps became a unit of Claremont Colleges, Inc., through a gift of Miss Ellen Scripps. The enrollment (200) is limited by rigid scholastic requirements. The buildings are of modified Spanish design.

LA VERNE, 21.4 m. (1,050 alt., 2,860 pop.), is a citrus-packing center. Retail stores depend heavily on the patronage of LA VERNE COLLEGE students. La Verne originated as Lordsburg during the 1890 land boom. When the bubble burst, the promoters found themselves burdened with a $75,000 three-story hotel. In 1891 the Santa Fe Railway induced new settlers to come to the region, among them a group of Dunkards who later bought the hotel and founded Lordsburg College. In 1916, when the town changed its name to La Verne, the college did likewise. It is a co-educational institution with an enrollment of 250.

At 23.3 m. is a junction with San Dimas Canyon Rd.

Right on this road to SAN DIMAS CANYON PARK, 0.5 m., 110 acres of naturally wooded land (picnicking facilities) at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains. Hiking trails lead into the mountains. The motor road winds up the canyon to WOLFSKILL FALLS, 11 m.

GLENDORA, 25.9 m. (776 alt., 2,761 pop.), another citrus-packing community, was founded in 1887 by George Whitcomb, a Chicago manufacturer, who coined the name from the word "glen" and his wife's name, "Ledora." The first commercial orange grove here, planted by John Cook in 1866, is still productive.

AZUSA, 27.6 m. (611 alt., 4,808 pop.), dating from the boom year of 1887, is yet another citrus-shipping center. The name is derived from Asuksag-na, name of an Indian village here.

The name of DUARTE, 31.9 m. (600 alt., 1,326 pop.), center of an old orange-growing district, commemorates Andreas Duarte, grantee of a 4,000-acre tract on the site, who constructed a ditch to bring water from San Gabriel Canyon for irrigation purposes.

MONROVIA, 34.3 m. (560 alt., 10,090 pop.), was laid out in 1886 by W. N. Monroe, when lots today worth many thousands of dollars were sold for $100. Monrovia is surrounded by orange, lemon, and avocado groves and other orchards. Poultry raising and small gardening are important in the vicinity. The town is noted for a wide variety of trees and shrubs; in the northern part of town is a papaya plantation.

ARCADIA, 35.9 m. (479 alt., 5,216 pop.), is largely peopled by Los Angeles commuters. Poultry and rabbit raising is carried on here.

The LYON PONY EXPRESS MUSEUM, (L) 36.4 m. (8-6; adm. 25¢, children 10¢), where the highway widens triangularly to meet converging Huntington Drive, houses the privately owned exhibit of W. Parker Lyon, former mayor of Fresno, California. The frame buildings achieve a deliberately ramshackle effect, purportedly resembling a ghost city, with a "pioneer" attendant guarding the entrance. Inside is an 1849 bullet-scarred bar, an old gold scale, a vigilante bell, several stagecoaches, and a collection of Indian momentos and curios of the 1840's and 1850's -- but little to justify the name "Pony Express."

At 36.4 m. is a junction with Huntington Drive.

SIERRA MADRE, 36.9 m. (835 alt., 3,550 pop.), is a foothill town surrounded by the deep green of orange groves. A trellised wistaria on the FENNEL ESTATE (adm. 10¢), Carter St. and Hermos Ave., planted in 1894, extends over an acre of ground, and its blooming season -- March 10 to April 1 -- is occasion for the Sierra Madre Wistaria Fête, held annually since 1921.

At 40.2 m. is a junction with San Gabriel Blvd. (State 19).

West of its junction with San Gabriel Blvd., US 66 runs along Colorado Ave. through charming residential outskirts to the business center of Pasadena.

PASADENA, 43.2 m. (855 alt., 70,096 pop.) (see Pasadena).

LOS ANGELES, 54.2 m. (250 alt., 1,283,859 pop.) (see Los Angeles).

Los Angeles is at junctions with US 60-70-99 (see Tour 13b) and US 101 (see Tour 2c).

Right from Figueroa St. on Sunset Blvd. to a junction with Santa Monica Blvd.; L. on Santa Monica Blvd. to HOLLYWOOD, 57.6 m. (400 alt., 185,847 pop.). (see Hollywood).

BEVERLY HILLS, 62.2 m. (260 to 325 alt., 17,429 pop.), is the home of many luminaries of the cinema world. Standing like a small island almost surrounded by the irregular boundaries of Los Angeles, it is an independent city laid out in 1907 by a former resident of Beverly, Mass. Many of the earlier motion picture stars built homes here because the then-undeveloped rolling foothills offered ample space for large estates near Hollywood studios and ocean beaches. Today it has become almost traditional for the principal screen stars to be represented in the community by large homes, partly because of their publicity value; and Beverly Hills residential architecture has achieved a new note of splendor. Most of the mansions are in the foothills; in the level lowland area south of Sunset Blvd. are smaller bungalows, bungalow courts, apartment houses, and hotels. Many privately owned concerns conduct tours through the city, and up-to-date guide books listing the names and the constantly changing addresses of the well-known residents are available (see also Hollywood: Homes of Movie Stars).

SANTA MONICA, 71.1 m. (140 alt., 37,146 pop.) (see Tour 2b), is at the junction with US 101 Alt. (see Tour 2b).