State Scenic Highway 4 4
State Scenic Highway 4 is a National Scenic Byway in California. Within California it covers roughly 55 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along State Scenic Highway 4 with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
State Scenic Highway 4 crosses Ebbetts Pass at 8,736 feet, a 61-mile National Scenic Byway between Arnold and Markleeville in the Sierra Nevada. Named for miner J.A.N. Ebbetts, who claimed to have led a mule party over the pass in 1851, the route began as a supply road financed by merchants in the Gold Rush town of Murphys to reach silver boomtowns on the Sierra's eastern slope in the late 1850s. Before that, the pass had long served the Washoe and Miwok peoples as a trade route and summer travel corridor between the mountains' two sides. California designated the highway a State Scenic Highway in 1971, and it earned National Scenic Byway status in 2005. Much of the drive is a narrow, one-lane mountain road with no center line and steep drop-offs, considered one of the more physically demanding paved passes in the range. Closed by snow most winters, it's a high-alpine drive through granite peaks and lake basins rather than a practical year-round crossing.
- Arnold to Markleeville
- Ebbetts Pass (8,736 ft)
- 61-mile National Scenic Byway
- designated CA State Scenic Highway 1971
- National Scenic Byway status 2005
- one-lane sections, no center line
Plan a drive on State Scenic Highway 4 →
What is a National Scenic Byway?
National Scenic Byways are roads recognized at the federal level for at least one outstanding quality — scenic, natural, historic, cultural, archaeological or recreational — that gives travelers a reason to seek them out rather than just pass through.
Where to Stay along State Scenic Highway 4
14 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of State Scenic Highway 4.
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