Glenwood Canyon

This past August, I went to Vail, Colorado to visit my boyfriend for two weeks. I had never been there during the summer so I was very excited to see what beauty the city holds. Now don't get me wrong, it's gorgeous there but the bar was raised when my boyfriend surprised me with a trip to one of America's most scenic roadways, Glenwood Canyon.

There are no pictures out there that will do this canyon justice! It's definitely one to go and see in person. Glenwood Canyon is on I-70 in western Colorado about 150 miles west of Denver. The 16 mile long canyon is on the Colorado River between the towns of Glenwood Springs and Gypsum. A challenge was taken in the 1980's to complete one of the last stretches of the Interstate. In the end, the freeway snaked through using tunnels and bridges to create the highway but in no way did it hurt or contribute to the gorgeous appearance this canyon holds.

The canyon was formed by the Colorado River. With the canyon being 16 miles long, it has steep to sheer cliff sides rising on either side of the river with creeks and small canyons branching off from it.

In the early 20th century, the state highway was starting to get underway and became part of SH 4. In 1926, the US Highway routes were developed and the route through Glenwood Canyon was proposed to be part of US 46. Since then, there have been many changes to what the highway was connected to and renumbered. Then in 1937, US 6 was lengthened to western from Denver and was co-marked with US 24 through the canyon. During this time the canyon was just gravel until the Depression. U.S. Representative Edward Taylor got $1.5 million for widening and paving the canyon road.

It wasn't until the 1960's when the federal government approved an extension for I-70 to go west from Denver to Utah. The first part was completed in 1965. This included two bores for the No Name Tunnels and bypassed the Horseshoe Curve section of the canyon. The second part (Dotsero) of I-70 was built by 1982 but the section from No Name to Dotsero would be the most difficult to complete due to rejections of costs, distances and road closures during the winter season.

Overall, this gorgeous canyon is one for the books. This is "one of the most scenic sections of roadway, one of the last sections of Interstate Highway to be built, a construction project that brought never-before-used-construction methods to the U.S. and one of the greatest engineering achievements of the U.S." (Matthew Salek).