North from CA 1 in Sausalito down the very next exit ramp (446). It curves hard right just before it ends, but I think a simple left arrow would be easier to follow.


The next set of NB signs takes me to the short Exit 450A ramp. Along the way, I pass an El Camino Real bell; the colonial trail continued past San Francisco to Sonoma.


The ramps are so short, the onramp sign is within easy sight of the mainline highway. This is an older freeway.


The best I could do at SB button copy photos while heading north in the evening. You should have enough context to figure them out from the NB side.


Back to NB and down the Exit 450B ramp to Drake Blvd., which is a cutoff to the Richmond Bridge on I-580 to the east. The Lucky Dr./Exit 450A entrance ramp is forced onto the Exit 450B ramp system, so there's a return slip ramp in the last photo.


If you don't go with the shortcut, you'll find that the next exit (451) doesn't directly connect to I-580, requiring crossing Bellam Blvd. first. Still an easier connection than the multiple turns from I-580 WB to US 101 SB. And yeah, I said Bellam. Francisco Blvd. parallels I-580 to the north, and really both directions are reached by turning left. But there's a shorter length of US 101 SB frontage road called "Francisco Blvd. West" and that's what you'd find to the right.


I left US 101 there and didn't return until the north end of CA 1, which this is signing SB. Leggett Drive Thru Rd. is a tourist attraction but it's not to the right, and it's not at the next sign after you turn right, either, which is an unsigned part of CA 271 (numbered over former US 101). I guess that's the only reason anyone would have to drive 271 there.


Here's the northern, signed CA 271, crossing South Fork Eel River west of modern US 101 in Cooks Valley.


Photos start across Durphy Creek and continue to the abandoned Jordan Creek bridge, north of the US 101 freeway and north of what's now the northern end of Avenue of the Giants, CA 254. You better believe I explored it - see the big link below.


A raft of SB button copy from the area. Since they're all ground mounted, they (well, a few of them) have exit tabs like the other 49 states instead of California specials.


Leaving Rio Dell across the Eel River on the old US 101 bridge, now NB-only. US 101 SB gets the modern bridge, but the northern span of this one is also relatively modern. The old truss was washed away in a 1964 flood and replaced with a plain girder-supported deck.


Looking back south at the remaining 2/3 of the bridge.

Continue north on US 101
Back south on US 101/CA 1
Back to US 101 main page
Over to CA 271, old US 101
Over to CA 254, old US 101
CA 283, old US 101 in Rio Dell

Exit 450B or 451 to I-580
Back to California Roads
Back to Roads