State Route 24 (SR-24) is a

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 Route number, numbered or maintained by a sub-national state or province. A road numbered ...

in south central

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

which runs south from Salina through Sevier County then east through Wayne County and north east through Emery County. At a total of 163.294 miles (262.796 km), it is the longest contiguous state route in Utah. A portion of the highway has been designated the ''Capitol Reef Scenic Byway'' as part of the Utah Scenic Byways program.

Route description

The highway starts at US-50 near Salina and ends at

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 I-695 and Maryland Route 570 (MD 570) in Woodlawn, just outside Baltimore, Maryland. I-70 appr ...

near Green River, taking a scenic route between the Fishlake and

Dixie National Forest Dixie National Forest is a United States National Forest in Utah with headquarters in Cedar City. It occupies almost two million acres (8,000 km2) and stretches for about across southern Utah. The largest national forest in Utah, it ...

s then through

Capitol Reef National Park Capitol Reef National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in south-central Utah. The park is approximately long on its northsouth axis and just wide on average. The park was established in ...

, along the eastern side of the

San Rafael Reef The San Rafael Reef is a geologic feature located in Emery County in central Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a ...

passing

Goblin Valley State Park Goblin Valley State Park is a state park of Utah, in the United States. The park features thousands of hoodoos, referred to locally as goblins, which are formations of mushroom-shaped rock pinnacles, some as tall as several yards (meters). Th ...

and meeting I-70 again near Green River. Along the way, it passes through the towns of

Loa , also called loa, are spirits in the African diaspora religions, African diasporic religion of Haitian Vodou and Dominican Vudú. They have also been incorporated into some revivalist forms of Louisiana Voodoo. Many of the lwa derive their iden ...

, Lyman, Bicknell, Torrey and Hanksville. The

Mars Society The Mars Society is a nonprofit organization that advocates for human exploration and colonization of Mars. It was founded by Robert Zubrin in 1998 and its principles are based on Zubrin's Mars Direct philosophy, which aims to make human miss ...

established the

Mars Desert Research Station The Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) is the largest and longest-running Mars surface research facility and is one of two simulated Mars analog habitats owned and operated by the Mars Society. The MDRS station was built in the early 2000s ne ...

just outside Hanksville, due to its Mars-like terrain . The north easterly section past the San Rafael Reef is open desert with distant views of the

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

and

La Sal Mountains The La Sal Mountains or La Sal Range is a mountain range located in Grand and San Juan counties in the U.S. state of Utah, along the border with Colorado. The range rises above and southeast of Moab and north of the town of La Sal. This range i ...

Traffic volume

The Average Daily Traffic (AADT) for SR-24 is at its greatest between Salina and

Sigurd Sigurd ( ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon — known in Nordic tradition as Fafnir () — and who was later murdered. In the Nordic countries, he is referred t ...

, where it varies between 3,085 down to 1,500 at the Junction with SR-118. Past that point, the volume of traffic varies greatly, reaching peaks where the highway coincides with the main streets in the several towns through which it passes. In

, the AADT reaches 2,080, in Torrey, it peaks at 1,230. Then the traffic dies down to 295 by the time SR-24 arrives back at

History

The road from SR-11 (by 1926

US-89 U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern sectio ...

) at

southeast and east to Hanksville became a state highway in 1910 ( Wayne County) and 1912 ( Piute and Sevier Counties). , updated September 2007, accessed May 2008 The number was assigned in 1927 by the state legislature, and in 1935 it was extended northeast from Hanksville to US-6 near Green River. A realignment in 1961 bypassed Capitol Reef Road between

Fruita Fruita () is a home rule municipality located in western Mesa County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 13,395 at the 2020 United States census. Fruita is a part of the Grand Junction, Colorado Metropolitan Statistical Area and ...

and

Caineville Caineville is an unincorporated community in central Wayne County, Utah, United States. The community is located east of Capitol Reef National Park and west of Hanksville, along the Fremont River and Utah State Route 24. The settlement was n ...

; as part of the construction of

, the east end was moved west to that highway's exit 149 in 1964. SR-24 was extended north from its west end over former

to present-day US-89 in 1969, and cut back slightly to its current end at US-50 in the 1977 renumbering. (The 1969 extension was signed as part of US-89 until 1992, soon after I-70 was completed. , updated November 2007, accessed May 2008) For a time in the 1950s and 1960s, there was also a State Route 24A, which was a short spur of SR-24 from Sigurd southwest along Main Street to SR-11/US-89.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:State Route 024 024 024 024 024 024 024 Capitol Reef National Park