State Scenic Highway 46 46
State Scenic Highway 46 is a scenic drive 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 46 with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
State Scenic Highway 46 crosses the golden hills east of Paso Robles to Cholame, where actor James Dean died in a 1955 car crash. On September 30, 1955, Dean was driving west toward the junction with Highway 41 when another driver turned left across his path; the intersection is now signed as the James Dean Memorial Junction, marked by a small roadside memorial near where his Porsche came to rest. A few miles west in Cholame, a metal sculpture wrapped around a tree, funded in 1977 by a Japanese businessman and longtime Dean admirer, forms a second, more elaborate memorial. Beyond its Hollywood history, the highway's stretch from Cambria to Cholame is eligible for California's State Scenic Highway System, rolling through amber hills, oak groves, and ranchland east of the wine country around Paso Robles. Decades of head-on collisions have also earned this stretch the grim local nickname 'Blood Alley,' a reminder that the same open, fast curves that make it scenic have made it dangerous.
- Paso Robles to Cholame
- James Dean Memorial Junction (1955)
- 1977 sculptural memorial
- eligible for CA Scenic Highway System
- 'Blood Alley' nickname
- golden hills and oak groves
Plan a drive on State Scenic Highway 46 →
About this drive
This is a scenic drive — a road worth taking for the views and the journey itself rather than the quickest line between two points.
Where to Stay along State Scenic Highway 46
3 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of State Scenic Highway 46.
Campsite, lodging, RV rental and membership links are affiliate links — booking through them may earn Road Sorties a small commission, at no extra cost to you. Recreation.gov links are not affiliate links.