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100 years of US routes: 1926-2026
South entrance to Yellowstone National Park
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Among roadfans, it is widely-known that US routes do not exist within Yellowstone National Park (with one exception), and therefore the south entrance to the Park marks the northern terminus for a few different routes. On official maps for Yellowstone NP, the National Parks Service meticulously avoids placing any US route markers on the roads inside the boundary of the Park. Instead markers are placed where the main highways leave Yellowstone, and this map indicates that the south entrance marks the north beginning of the south sections of US 89, US 191, and US 287:
Upon exiting Yellowstone, the highway immediately enters an area known as Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, which is managed by Grand Teton National Park. On official maps for Grand Teton, NPS does show US route markers inside the Park boundary (which is indicated by the green line in the southern part of this detail)...
...however, it appears that NPS cartographers avoided placing US route markers inside the Park boundary wherever possible. Towards the middle section of the map, another set of US route markers is shown, with the US 26-287 marker outside the boundary...
...and along the south edge of the map, all US route markers were placed outside of the boundary (which is the green area at the very top of this detail):
The minimalist methodology on these maps mirrors the way NPS signposts the US routes within Grand Teton NP... that is to say, US routes are not signposted at all, except at Moran Junction (see the US 187 page). So for travelers on northbound US 89-191-287, the last signage they will see is at Moran Jct, even though the routes actually continue north for another 29 miles, not ending until the highway crosses into Yellowstone:
Elbert, Jul. 2005
Heading south out of Yellowstone, drivers immediately enter Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, and (despite the lack of signage) they are at the north beginning of the south segments of US 89-191-287...
Google Maps Street View, Aug. 2024
...however, even at Moran Jct there is no highway signage for southbound travelers. So drivers on southbound US 287 will not see a reassurance marker until they exit Grand Teton NP (about 30 miles southeast of Yellowstone), and drivers on southbound US 89-191will not see any signage to that effect until they reach Jackson (about 60 miles south of Yellowstone).
It is worth mentioning that, besides Moran Jct, there is one other place within Grand Teton NP that references a US highway designation (or at least there was in 2013). In Coulter Bay Village, most NPS signage simply points visitors to the "Main Highway", but there was one sign that referred to it as "Highway 89":
GMSV, Aug. 2013
Research and/or image credits: Chris Elbert; Dale Sanderson
Page originally created 2005;last updated May 6, 2025.
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