State Highway 26 (SH 26) is a long

state highway A state highway, state road, or state route (and the equivalent provincial highway, provincial road, or provincial route) is usually a road that is either ''numbered'' or ''maintained'' by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered by a ...

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It follows a portion of Alameda Avenue, stretching east from SH 95 (Sheridan Boulevard) at the west city limits to Kalamath Street within the

Interstate 25 Interstate 25 (I-25) is a major Interstate Highway in the western United States. It is primarily a north–south highway, serving as the main route through New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. I-25 stretches from I-10 at Las Cruces, New Mexi ...

(I-25) and

U.S. Route 85 U.S. Route 85 (US 85) is a north–south United States Highway that travels in the Mountain and Northern Plains states of the United States. The southern terminus of the highway is at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, connecting wi ...

(US 85) interchange (I-25 exit 208). It formerly continued west through Lakewood to

US 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America, is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid-Atlantic States. As with most routes ...

near

I-70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of I-695 in Baltimore, Maryland, and is the fifth-longest Interstate in the c ...

exit 259.

Route description

SH 26 is a four-to-six lane surface road, beginning at SH 95 and crossing SH 88 (Federal Boulevard) midway. Approaching the east end, it crosses the

South Platte River The South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River. Flowing through the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska, it is itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West. It ...

just before the interchange with I-25. Kalamath Street, the end of state maintenance, is one-way southbound, providing access to

US 85 U.S. Route 85 (US 85) is a north–south United States Highway that travels in the Mountain and Northern Plains states of the United States. The southern terminus of the highway is at the Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, connecting ...

south and I-25 south. One block later, Santa Fe Drive (one-way northbound) carries traffic from US 85 north and I-25 north, and leads to the onramp to I-25 north.

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

including Street View photographs, accessed November 2013

History

East of Morrison Road, Alameda Avenue was once part of SH 8, defined in 1923 along the modern US 285 corridor southwest of Denver. As part of a large expansion of the state highway system in 1938, existing SH 74 was extended from Morrison north along SH 93 (Hog Back Road) and east on Alameda Parkway and Alameda Avenue to end at Morrison Road. This extension was removed from the state highway system in 1953, along with most of the 1938 additions,1923 list of state highways, reproduced i
Highways to the Sky
Appendix C, p. 39 but in 1966 it was restored as a new State Highway 26. Since the part of SH 93 along Hog Back Road had also been given back to the county in 1953, SH 26 went north from the west end of Alameda Parkway to end at US 40 just north of the present I-70 exit 259. SH 8 was removed from Morrison Road and Alameda Avenue in 1968-1969, giving SH 26 its maximum extent of about from US 40 to I-25.

Colorado Department of Transportation The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT, pronounced See Dot) is the principal department of the Colorado state government that administers state government transportation responsibilities in the state of Colorado. CDOT is responsible f ...

, official highway maps: 1931, 1937, 1939, 1952, 1954, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1984, 1992, 1997, 1999, 2002 The first chunk was removed from SH 26 in 1984, when the between SH 391 (Kipling Street) and SH 95 were given to the city of Lakewood. (SH 391 was simultaneously extended south from SH 26 to US 285.) The west segment was truncated to run only from US 40 to SH 470 between 1992 and 1997, and was eliminated entirely between 1999 and 2002. Alameda Parkway through

Dinosaur Ridge Dinosaur Ridge is a segment of the Dakota Hogback in the Morrison Fossil Area National Natural Landmark located in Jefferson County, Colorado, near the town of Morrison and just west of Denver. The Dinosaur Ridge area is one of the world's mo ...

between Hog Back Road and Rooney Road (west of SH 470) has since been closed to motor vehicles, but is open to bicycles and pedestrians as the

Dinosaur Ridge Trail Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is th ...

Major intersections

References

External links

Colorado Highways: Route 26
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colorado State Highway 026 026 Transportation in Denver