| US 89 | |||
| Get started | smoot | ||
| End | Mammoth Hot Springs | ||
| Length | 247 mi | ||
| Length | 397 km | ||
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According to necessaryhome.com, US 89 is a US Highway in the US state of Wyoming. The road forms a north-south route in the west of the state, between the Idaho border near Smoot, through Jackson and Yellowstone National Park to the Montana border. Much of the road is double numbered with several other US Highways. The route is 397 kilometers long.
Travel directions
US 89 along the Grand Tetons.
South of Smoot, US 89 in Idaho enters Wyoming from Logan and then crosses a ridge of the Rocky Mountains before turning north and entering a high valley at about 2,100 meters. To the east is the Salt River Ridge, to the west the border with Idaho. In Alpine, the US 26 merges from Pocatello. Both roads then start with a fairly long double numbering. The road then continues through the steep valley of the Snake River before arriving at an intersection where US 191 merges from Rock Springs and US 189from Evanston ends. The triple numbering then goes north and passes through the small town of Jackson, the largest town in western Wyoming. One then enters Grand Teton National Park. From the road you have a view of the Grand Teton, a mountain of 4,197 meters high. It also has stunning views over the Teton Range. A little further on, at Jackson Lake, US 26 exits from the double-numbering and heads toward Casper in the east, while US 287 merges from Rawlins, maintaining the triple-numbering.
The Grand Teton National Park changes here into the Yellowstone National Park, an area with less high mountains, but the road runs here at an altitude of 2,400 meters. The surrounding mountains are not significantly higher, so that this is a plateau. One then crosses the Continental Divide, the watershed between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. At the hamlet of West Thumb is a major intersection where US 14 and US 16 begin and run toward Sheridan and Buffalo in the east and begin quadruple numbering as US 20it comes in from the east. The scenery here is made up of low trees, and it takes you past Wyoming’s most famous tourist attractions, the geysers, including Old Faithful. In the hamlet of Madison Junction, the three road numbers ( US 20 / US 191 / US 287 ) turn west and US 89 continues an individual route north.
The Yellowstone National Park is quite large in size, and there are still more than 50 kilometers through the park. Here are some more mountains nearby, reaching over 3,000 meters. The road itself runs at an altitude of 2,200 meters and passes some geysers. It then connects with US 212, which begins here and heads east into Montana. Shortly thereafter, US 89 also crosses the border into Montana and US 89 continues in Montana to Great Falls in the north.
History
US 89 was one of the original US Highways of 1926, but at the time it ran no further north than Spanish Fork, Utah. In 1934, the route was extended north to the Piegan–Carway Border Crossing on the Canadian border, also creating the route through Wyoming. On the northwest portion from Moran Junction to the Montana border, US 89 took over the older US 87W.
In southwestern Wyoming, US 89 originally ran further east on what is now US 189 via Evanston, Kemmerer, and Big Piney to Jackson. The route through Wyoming was about 580 kilometers long at the time. However, this situation only existed for a few years, in 1939 US 89 was routed westward, staying longer in Utah, and entered the state through the Star Valley from Montpelier, Idaho. The old route then became US 189. The route has not been changed since 1939.
No major upgrades have been made to US 89, the road passes through every place on the route. Only in Jackson a small section has been widened to 5 lanes with center turn lane, already in or before the 1980s.
Traffic intensities
Every day, 1,200 vehicles drive on the Idaho border and 5,000 vehicles through the elongated Star Valley around Afton. Closer to Jackson, intensities rise to 8,000 to 12,000 vehicles per day, peaking at 29,000 vehicles in Jackson itself. After that, 5,000 vehicles drive as far as Moran Junction and 1,600 vehicles into Yellowstone National Park.
Cheyenne (Wyoming)
Cheyenne is the capital of the US state of Wyoming. Cheyenne is home to some 62,448 people, making it the largest city in the entire state.
