State Highway 103 (SH 103) in the

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state of

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

runs from

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, Baltimo ...

(I-70),

U.S. Route 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6) or U.S. Highway 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the United States Numbered Highway System. While it ...

(US 6) and

US 40 U.S. Route 40 or U.S. Highway 40 (US 40), also known as the Main Street of America (a nickname shared with U.S. Route 66), is a major east–west United States Highway traveling across the United States from the Mountain States to the Mid- ...

Idaho Springs The City of Idaho Springs is the statutory city that is the most populous municipality in Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States. Idaho Springs is a part of the Denver–Aurora–Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 ...

to county roads 151 and 103 at Mestaa'ėhehe Pass. The 13 miles (19 km) from Idaho Springs to SH 5 forms about half of the

Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway The Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway is a National Forest Scenic Byway and Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Clear Creek County, Colorado, Clear Creek and Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson counties, Colorado, United States. The byway ...

Route description

East of where the route begins at County Road 151, the highway is not marked by CDOT, where it continues as Mestaa'ėhehe Road (formerly Squaw Pass Road) that descends toward

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

. Near Mestaa'ėhehe Pass, the highway heads west along the upper end of

Echo Mountain Ski Area In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

. The highway then reaches an elevation of 10,000 feet at Echo Lake Park, where it meets SH 5. At this point, both SH 103 and SH 5 forms the Mount Blue Sky Scenic Byway, which is the highest paved road in North America. The route then descends in elevation, heading northeast along the Chicago Creek, then enters

after crossing Clear Creek. SH 103 terminates at Interstate 70 at a diamond interchange and the road continues as 13th Avenue through the neighborhood.

History

The route was established in 1923, where it began at

US 285 U.S. Route 285 is a north–south United States highway, running 846 miles (1,362 km) through the states of Texas, New Mexico and Colorado. The highway's southern terminus is in Sanderson, Texas at an intersection with U.S. Route 90. ...

and traversed to Idaho Springs. The segment east of Mestaa'ėhehe Pass was renumbered in 1954, and the route was entirely paved by 1956.

Major intersections

Gallery

References

External links

Colorado Routes 100-119
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