Highway 80 Goodies at the Highway 80 Store!

Distance: 37 miles from the Desert View Tower to Sunrise Highway on Old Highway 80. Desert View Tower is about 75 miles east of central San Diego. Difficulty: Easy Directions: Interstate 8 east to In-Ko-Pah Park Road. Continue east to Desert View Tower, at end of road. Return to Old U.S. 80, heading west to Jacumba. In Boulevard, keep right at “Y” intersection with state Route 94. Left at Golden Acorn Casino to continue on Old Highway 80. At Sunrise Highway, take Interstate 8 west to return to San Diego. Optional “Rest of Old Highway 80”: Cross Interstate 8 at Sunrise Highway. Left at Old Highway 80 to Pine Valley, Guatay and Descanso. Join Interstate 8 at Japatul Valley Road.

Thanks to a member of the Banakhead family for e-mailing me that Sen. John Bankhead was actress Talulah’s uncle. I originally said she was his daughter. My sources were a couple of San Diego history books, "San Diego County Place Names" by Lou Stein (Tofua Press, 1975) and "The Historic Backcountry" by Christoper Wray (2004). I stand corrected. Thanks to John Bankhead of South Carolina for the information.

Headed West on the ‘Broadway of America’
County’s Eastern Gateway, Old U.S. 80, Frozen In Time

Every year, thousands of nostalgia seekers and worshipers of great roads head out to festivals and other events along old Route 66, the historic highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Highway 80: Now A Historic Route… See story.

San Diego residents on this pilgrimage might even take Interstate 8 east to southern Arizona before heading north to Kingman and other towns once served by U.S. 66.

As they fly past the San Diego county line at 75 miles per hour on I-8, they’re missing a stretch of road that has everything that old Route 66 has, except maybe Bobby Troup’s song and a lot of promoters.

Concrete pavement is a good sign you’re on the old highway.

Old U.S. 80 was once called the “Broadway of America.” Unlike U.S. 66, it was a true intercontinental highway, running from Horton Plaza east to Savannah, Georgia.

In San Diego and Imperial Counties, it was replaced by I-8 by 1974, leaving the old road and communities like Jacumba frozen in time. Today, parts of this once busy highway are among the loneliest in San Diego county.

The trailblazers that forged what became Old Highway 80 found many of the easier spots through what is some of the least forgiving and rugged terrain anywhere. Caltrans engineers in the 1960s and 70s looked for a more direct route.

Follow Interstate 8 east from El Cajon through one of the prettiest drives anywhere. One of my favorite spots is between the Ribbonwood Road (state Route 94) and Jacumba exits, where the freeway winds its way through Walker Canyon. Although trails east ran through here, the main highway was south. Today, I-8’s twisting, divided route through the gorge defines rocky mountains, with all due respect to the giants in Colorado.

Exit I-8 at In-Ko-Pah Park Road, then go under the freeway and make a right, following old U.S. 80 east. While this was at one time the main route (note the old garages, motels and ruins), today it ends at the Desert View Tower (619-766-4612).

Desert View Tower has been a high-desert landmark for more than 80 years.

One of the great roadside attractions in America, the tower dates to the mid-1920s and provides a spectacular platform for viewing I-8, the Mountain Springs grade, Imperial Valley and beyond to the Colorado River and Arizona.

Today owned by San Diegan Ben Schultz, it’s well worth the small admission charge (adults, $2.50; children 5-12, $1; children under 5, free) for access not only to the great view up four flights of stairs in the tower, but the adjacent rock garden, created in the 1930s by artist W.T. Ratcliffe.

Schultz is eager to point out the sights, which include several generations of the highway visible from the tower.

Back on old 80, head west to Jacumba. An entry to the Jacumba Wilderness is just southwest of the In-Ko-Pah Park Road exit. At 31,171 acres, the wilderness stretches from this spot east into the Imperial Valley and south to the Mexican border. It’s the only park you’ll find around here, as In-Ko-Pah Park closed years ago.

This stretch toward Jacumba is one of the loneliest roads in San Diego county. Although just a few miles long, it’s a nice, straight road that rises and falls with the hilly terrain. The sparse high desert vegetation is framed by the rugged mountains surrounding this wide valley, home to the town of Jacumba. MORE>