Just past Pacific House on Highway 50 Monica and I recorded a section of old roadbed that we believed was at the old Highway 50, and possibly the Lincoln Highway. There is an easy to pull off turnout at the Eldorado National Forest sign where we started to hike the old roadbed.
Monica on the roadbed. We are facing west. Highway 50 to the right and below.
Headed east we were able to walk about 300 yards where the road drops downhill and seems to merge onto the present freeway. Across the highway, we could see where the trail again continued, so we were confident this was the old highway.
We then walked as far as we could west, to just about 50 yards past the Eldorado National Forest sign. There is a large amount of debris piled there so that we couldn't go further. Headed back down to the truck we walked just a few yards up the expressway where Monica spotted a concrete culvert going under the old roadbed.
Map showing where the alignment is, red line.
We decided to get a closer look at the culvert to see if there were any markings on it. Walking down towards the entrance, I could see numbers stamped into the top portion of the culvert. There, under some moss that had grown on the top, was the date, 1923. This road was the Lincoln Highway! The Lincoln ceased to exist as a name when the freeways were given numbers in 1928, in this case creating Highway 50.
So, all in all, it was a productive day spent looking for and finding an old alignment of The Lincoln Highway in the Eldorado National Forest.