GLENWOOD CANYON

For many visitors traveling to Glenwood Springs, Glenwood Canyon is a scenic drive that provides access to the town’s many attractions, but getting to Glenwood Springs wasn’t always so easy. Many canyons in Colorado have proven difficult to navigate. This Canyon was so treacherous that the Ute Indians chose to bypass it altogether, going over the Flat Tops instead. In 1887, the railroad completed tracks into Glenwood Springs, opening the area for the travel of people and goods. In 1899, Taylor State Road, a single-lane dirt road, provided a rough passage through the Canyon. Eventually, it became a two-lane state highway, but the road through Glenwood Canyon remained a bottleneck in the federal interstate system.

One of the biggest challenges the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) faced was how to squeeze a four-lane freeway into a gorge barely wide enough to accommodate the existing two-lane highway with minimal impact to the environment. CDOT’s solution was clever: construct two roadways, one nearly on top of the other. The final design features an elevated roadway including 40 bridges and viaducts spanning more than six miles between sections. The highway also houses a state-of-the-art traffic management and maintenance facility tucked inside the Hanging Lake Tunnels. From here, CDOT employees monitor road conditions and traffic, and can quickly alert travelers to unexpected weather or circumstances. A fleet of tow trucks, fire trucks, and emergency vehicles are on 24-hour standby if needed. Keeping canyons in Colorado safe is a top priority!

Thanks to the dedication of visionary designers, project managers, engineers, construction workers, landscapers and others, the Glenwood Canyon that travelers drive through today is a smooth, safe and stunning engineering showpiece with extraordinary attractions of its own.

When planning a drive through the Glenwood Canyon or a visit to Glenwood Springs, it is always a good idea to check road conditions prior to traveling. Interstate 70 through the Glenwood Canyon is the only major east/west road through the Colorado Rockies, check in with CDOT before your journey to ensure the best trip possible.