[4] The highway over the pass is extremely steep (exceeding 8% for most of the traverse, and up to 26% grades in some locations), narrow and winding between Kennedy Meadows on the west side and Leavitt Meadows on the east; unlike most Sierra Nevada road passes, the approach from the west is steep just like the eastern approach.

[6] Adjacent to the Pass is a picnic/parking area, which serves as a day-use rest stop or a trailhead for hikes to nearby Sonora Peak, Wolf Creek Lake, and other spots north or south along the Pacific Crest Trail.

The first documented immigrant traverse of Sonora Pass appears to have been in the late summer of 1852 by a wagon train known as the Clark-Skidmore Company.

The Baker Highway Maintenance Station, on 108 to the west of the summit, kept the road open during the summer; it is closed in the winter, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1935, MGM Art Director David Townsend was killed when the car he was riding in left the road at Sonora Pass.