Sounds like chipseal, which can vary from pretty fine gravel (ok to ride after cars beat it down a bit) to very coarse gravel (which can stay unridable for a long time). It's always seemed to me that if it's very hot and the road gets a lot of traffic, it can get beat down to "normal" reasonably quickly. But if it's coarse gravel and the road doesn't get a lot of traffic you might be in for a long wait.

Somebody here posted a cost comparison between chipseal resurfacing vs. putting in a new asphalt surface. As I recall, chipseal is much, much, much cheaper for the city/county/state.