U.S. Route 285 (US 285) is the section north-south highway in Colorado that starts at the New Mexico state line and ends at

I-25 Interstate 25 (I-25), also known as the Pan-American Freeway, 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 st ...

, US 87, and SH 30 in

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

Route description

Heading north from the Colorado border, US 285 passes through the main part of the

San Luis Valley The San Luis Valley is a region in south-central Colorado with a small portion overlapping into New Mexico. The valley is approximately long and wide, making it the largest alpine valley in the world. It extends from the Continental Divide on ...

, eventually reaching

Alamosa Alamosa is the home rule city that is the county seat of Alamosa County, Colorado, United States. Alamosa is located along the Rio Grande. The city population was 9,806 in the 2020 United States census. The city is the commercial center of th ...

. As the highway heads north, it begins to ascend to the northern end of the valley and eventually climbs over Poncha Pass, elevation , and drops sharply down the other side into the Arkansas River Valley. The highway brushes Salida and follows the Arkansas River north up the valley, then takes a sharp eastward turn just before the small town of Buena Vista. 285 then climbs over

Trout Creek Pass Trout Creek Pass, elevation , is a mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado in the United States. The pass sits atop the southern end of the Mosquito Range on the Park- Chaffee county line, between South Park (th ...

, elevation , and enters the high-altitude

South Park ''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boysStan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand the ...

basin. A few miles north, the highway passes through

Fairplay FairPlay is a family of digital rights management (DRM) technologies developed by Apple Inc. for protecting videos, books and apps and historically for music. Music The initial version of FairPlay was created to protect music on the iTunes S ...

and the historic South Park City site, then reaches its highest elevation: , at the summit of Red Hill Pass. US 285 then leaves the

basin and climbs over

Kenosha Pass Kenosha Pass, elevation , is a high mountain pass located in the Rocky Mountains of central Colorado in the United States. The pass is located in the Rocky Mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, just northeast of the town of Fairplay, Color ...

, elevation , and skirts the south side of the

Mount Evans Mount Blue Sky (formerly Mount Evans) is the highest peak in the Mount Evans Wilderness in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains of North America. The Topographic prominence, prominent fourteener is located southwest by south (Absolute bearin ...

massif as it descends its way through the foothills range towards Denver. As the highway leaves the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in great-circle distance, straight-line distance from the northernmost part of Western Can ...

and reaches Denver's southwest suburbs, it becomes Hampden Avenue, an important artery in the south Denver metro area, then reaches its northern terminus at

. The high speed, dual-carriageway segment of US 285 that aligns with Hampden Avenue in the grid system is locally known as the Hampden Avenue Freeway. On March 14, 2008 both houses of the Colorado legislature, in a unanimous vote, named the section between Kenosha Pass and C-470 the Ralph Carr Memorial Highway.

History

The short segment between US 50 at Salida and US 24 at Buena Vista closely parallels the original U.S. Route 650, which was designated in 1926, but eliminated in 1936 when US 285 was commissioned along its present extent from Sanderson to Denver, mostly replacing state-numbered highways. Between Bailey and

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, US 285 mostly follows the route of the Denver, South Park and Pacific Railroad, part of the original

narrow gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

transcontinental railroad A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous rail transport, railroad trackage that crosses a continent, continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks may be via the Ra ...

Gallery

Junction list

References

External links

*{{commons category-inline Colorado 85-2 Transportation in Conejos County, Colorado Transportation in Alamosa County, Colorado Transportation in Rio Grande County, Colorado Transportation in Saguache County, Colorado Transportation in Chaffee County, Colorado Transportation in Park County, Colorado Transportation in Jefferson County, Colorado Transportation in Arapahoe County, Colorado Transportation in Denver