U.S. Route 34 (US 34) is a part of the U.S. Highway System that travels from Granby, Colorado, to

Berwyn, Illinois Berwyn is a suburban city in Cook County, Illinois, coterminous with Berwyn Township, Cook County, Illinois, Berwyn Civil township, Township, which was formed in 1908 after breaking off from Cicero Township, Cook County, Illinois, Cicero Townshi ...

. In the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, US 34 is a road that spans across northern Colorado. It begins at

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 ...

in Granby and ends at the Nebraska border, where it continues as US 34, east of

Laird Laird () is the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a baron and above a gentleman. This rank was held only by those lairds holding official recognition in ...

Route description

Rocky Mountain NP, Road 34 - Rainbow Curve - panoramio

Granby to Rocky Mountain National Park

The route begins in Granby at

. It then follows the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

Valley near Granby Lake and enters

Arapaho National Recreational Area The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ban ...

Trail Ridge Road

After entering

Rocky Mountain National Park Rocky Mountain National Park is an American national park located approximately northwest of Denver in north-central Colorado, within the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The park is situated between the towns of Estes Park to the east and ...

in Colorado's

Front Range The Front Range is a mountain range of the Southern Rocky Mountains of North America located in the central portion of the U.S. State of Colorado, and southeastern portion of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is the first mountain range encountered ...

, US 34 follows the North Fork Colorado River through Kawuneeche Valley. It passes over

Milner Pass Milner Pass, elevation is a mountain pass in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States. It is located on the continental divide in the Front Range, within Rocky Mountain National Park, along the boundary between Larimer an ...

and reaches the Alpine Visitor Center. Then it continues east, passing its highest point at 12,183 feet near Fall River Pass. It exits the park at

US 36 U.S. Route 36 (US 36) is an east–west United States highway that travels approximately from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado to Uhrichsville, Ohio. The highway's western terminus is at Deer Ridge Junction, an intersection i ...

at Deer Ridge Junction. US 34 here is the highest continuous highway in the United States. This section of US 34 requires a $30 national park entrance fee, making this segment into a toll road.

Estes Park to Loveland

From here, it passes by

Estes Park Estes Park is a statutory town in Larimer County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 5,904 at the 2020 United States Census. Estes Park is a part of the Fort Collins, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Co ...

, has a

business route A business route (or business loop, business spur, or city route) in the United States is a short special route connected to a ''parent'' numbered highway at its beginning, then routed through the central business district of a nearby city ...

, and then continues east through Big Thompson Canyon before entering Loveland as Eisenhower Boulevard, becoming a four-lane expressway. Here, it intersects

I-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 Mexic ...

and U.S. Highway 287.

Greeley to Nebraska border

At Greeley, it passes by U.S. Highway 85 in a complex interchange and U.S. 34 Business, and 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 ...

. It also has an interchange with SH 257. From here, it is no longer an expressway. It intersects SH 144 and SH 39, then joins

I-76 Interstate 76 may refer to: Interstate Highways in the United States * Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska) * Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey), running through Pennsylvania Video gaming * ''Interstate '76 ''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular c ...

Wiggins Team Wiggins Le Col (), also known as ''Team Wiggins'' in media, was a professional developmental cycling team based in the United Kingdom, which began competing in elite road bicycle racing and track cycling in 2015. The team folded at the e ...

. It leaves, and follows the North Fork Republican River east into Nebraska, where it intersects SH 71, SH 52, SH 63, SH 61, SH 59, and U.S. Highway 385.

History

Parts of the route were originally designated as US 38. US 34 was extended into Colorado in 1939.

Major intersections

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:U.S. Route 34 In Colorado 34 Colorado Transportation in Grand County, Colorado Transportation in Larimer County, Colorado Transportation in Weld County, Colorado Transportation in Morgan County, Colorado Transportation in Washington County, Colorado Transportation in Yuma County, Colorado