 A new " high @-@ gear " road from Banning to Idyllwild was under way by 1935 , and two years later , the Los Angeles Times considered the road to be " high @-@ gear " . Efforts to pave the road were under way in 1950 . The road from Banning through Idyllwild to SR 74 was known as County Route R1 ( CR R1 ) by 1966 . By 1969 , plans were in place to add the Banning to Idyllwild to Mountain Center road as a state highway ; earlier , State Senator Nelson <unk> proposed legislation to require the road to be added to the state highway system if SR 195 was removed , as the two were of roughly the same length , but the latter remained in the system . SR 243 was added to the state highway system in 1970 . The Division of Highways suggested <unk> the highway in 1971 . In 1998 , Caltrans had no plans to improve the route through 2015 . 
