Scenic Route 24 24
Scenic Route 24 is a State Scenic Byway in California. Within California it covers roughly 16 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Scenic Route 24 with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
State Route 24 is a California Scenic Highway running from Oakland through the Caldecott Tunnel to Walnut Creek beneath the Berkeley Hills. The freeway begins at the Interstate 580/980 interchange in Oakland and ends at Interstate 680 in Walnut Creek, but only the stretch from the tunnel's eastern portal to I-680 carries the official scenic designation, opening onto views of the East Bay hills and the Diablo Valley beyond as the road descends from the tunnel. The tunnel itself dates to 1937, when its first two bores opened as the Broadway Low Level Tunnel, built by Joint Highway District 13 under the leadership of former Berkeley mayor Thomas E. Caldecott; construction began in 1934 and the tunnel opened to traffic that December. Renamed for Caldecott in 1960, the crossing gained a third bore in 1964 and a fourth in 2013 to handle growing commute traffic between Oakland and Contra Costa County. What was originally conceived as a practical shortcut through the hills has become one of the Bay Area's defining commute corridors, with the scenic designation applied only to the calmer valley-side approach beyond the tunnel's chaos.
- Oakland to Walnut Creek
- Caldecott Tunnel (opened 1937)
- scenic: east tunnel portal to I-680
- named for Thomas E. Caldecott
- 4 tunnel bores (1937, 1937, 1964, 2013)
- Berkeley Hills crossing
Plan a drive on Scenic Route 24 →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along Scenic Route 24
No campgrounds are listed close to Scenic Route 24 yet, but there are rooms near the route.
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