End of US highway 287 (south segment)
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(not to be confused with the separate northern segment of US 287)
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Summa
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Mileage: in 1989 AASHTO listed a figure of 1609 miles for the south segment of US 287. That closely matches our own 2020 measurement, which yielded 1604.5 miles (reroutings and realignments likely explain the difference). (Note that US 287 does not exist within Yellowstone National Park, and although the route is implied to run through Yellowstone, the Park divides US 287 into two separate segments.)
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US 287 was commissioned in 1935, apparently for two reasons: 1.) to eliminate the US 87E / US 87W split routes, and 2.) to eliminate the short US 285[i] designation. North of Yellowstone National Park, US 87W was subsumed by a northward extension of US 89. But US 89 could not fulfill that role to the south of Yellowstone, so instead the US 287 designation was created. It eliminated US 87W southeast to Muddy Gap, and then continued down to Rawlins via the original US 87. But instead of ending there, US 287 was overlapped with US 30 eastward to Laramie, and from there it subsumed US 285[i] down to Ft. Collins. The remainder of US 285[i] from Ft. Collins to Denver became part of a re-routed and extended US 87, which followed College Avenue north from downtown, then north and east on modern CO hwy. 1 through Wellington and into Wyoming. However, US 287's junction with US 87 was not configured the same as the current intersection where CO 1 meets US 287. Rather, College made a more gentle curve to connect with Terry Lake Road (today's CO 1):
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c. 1937, CDoT
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Part of that curve is still in use today: the short segment of Spaulding Lane that connects to Terry Lake. The map below shows how the junction has changed over the years:
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Here, we are looking north on College. Today this is northbound US 287, which curves to the left, and the signal at upper left is the modern intersection with CO 1. But originally, when this was northbound US 87, there was a "Y" intersection here. US 87 curved to the right to join Terry Lake Rd, while the curve to the left was the south beginning of US 287:
Sanderson, Oct. 2004
Heading that direction, the north end of US 287[s] is at the south entrance to Yellowstone. In 1940, the US 287 designation was extended south and east along its present course, through Denver and all the way to its current southern terminus in Port Arthur.
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Research and/or photo credits: Dale Sanderson; Michael Summa
Page originally created 2001;
last updated Feb. 27, 2023.
last updated Feb. 27, 2023.
