US 191 | |||
Get started | Flaming Gorge | ||
End | West Yellowstone | ||
Length | 348 mi | ||
Length | 560 km | ||
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According to CITYPOPULATIONREVIEW.COM, US 191 is a US Highway in the US state of Wyoming. The road forms a north-south route through the west of the state and runs from the Utah border through Rock Springs and Jackson to the Montana border in Yellowstone National Park. Some parts of the route are numbered up to quadruple. The route is 560 kilometers long.
Travel directions
US 191 in northwest Wyoming.
US 191 in Utah crosses the Wyoming border at the Fleming Gorge Dam, in an uninhabited area. The nearest town here is 80 kilometers away. The road passes here over a plateau with low mountains and the area looks very desolate due to a lack of vegetation. Nevertheless, it is a spectacular route. To the west is the Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area. Just west of Rock Springs, the road merges with Interstate 80. Just north of the town the road turns off again and continues north through almost uninhabited area. The road again leads over a desolate plateau without really big differences in height. Oil is extracted in this area, which is visible through drilling platforms in the landscape. The route to the next US Highway is long, over 180 kilometers there is only one intersection with another thoroughfare, State Route 28 to Lander. Just past Pinedale is the connection with US 189, which comes from Evanston in the south. Both roads are then double-numbered to Hoback Junction, while in the meantime the landscape changes from a plateau to a high mountain. At Hoback Junction, US 189 ends and US 191 joins US 26 and theUS 89.
The triple numbering then goes north and passes through the small town of Jackson, the largest town in western Wyoming. One then enters Grand Teton National Park. From the road you have a view of the Grand Teton, a mountain of 4,197 meters high. It also has stunning views over the Teton Range. A little further on, at Jackson Lake, US 26 exits from the double-numbering and heads toward Casper in the east, while US 287 merges from Rawlins, maintaining the triple-numbering.
The Grand Teton National Park changes here into the Yellowstone National Park, an area with less high mountains, but the road runs here at an altitude of 2,400 meters. The surrounding mountains are not significantly higher, so that this is a plateau. One then crosses the Continental Divide, the watershed between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. At the hamlet of West Thumb is a major intersection, where US 14 and US 16 begin and run toward Sheridan and Buffalo in the east, and quadruple begins as US 20it comes in from the east. The scenery here is made up of low trees, and it takes you past Wyoming’s most famous tourist attractions, the geysers, including Old Faithful. In the hamlet of Madison Junction, the three road numbers ( US 20 /US 191/ US 287 ) turn west and US 89 continues an individual route north toward Great Falls in Montana. The border with Montana is barely 15 kilometers further on. US 191 in Montana then continues towards Bozeman.
History
According to ASK4BEAUTY, US 191 was one of the original US Highways of 1926. At the time, the route started in Idaho Falls and went only 10 kilometers through the extreme northwest of Wyoming. In 1937 the route was extended from Idaho Falls south to Tremonton, Utah. This route was replaced in the 1970s with the construction of I-15 in Utah and Idaho. In the 1960s and 1970s, plans were also made by Utah and Wyoming for a road link between Moab and Yellowstone. This was originally planned as an extension of US 163. Because I-15 was opened, the number US 191 was also released. In 1982, the route between Idaho Falls and West Yellowstone, Montana was scrapped, leaving US 191 temporarily out of Wyoming.
Later in 1982, the major extension followed south to I-40 at Chambers, Arizona. This established the current route through Wyoming. In southern Wyoming, this was a departure from the original plan of US 163, which at the time was planned to run westward via Kemmerer over what is now US 189. In the end, an easterly route via Rock Springs was chosen.
Traffic intensities
600 vehicles drive daily on the Utah border, rising to 800 vehicles just before I-80 at Rock Springs. After that, 2,000 to 3,000 vehicles will run between Rock Springs and Pinedale and 1,800 to 2,200 vehicles between Pinedale and Jackson. Up to 29,000 vehicles drive in Jackson, dropping to 5,000 vehicles north of the city and some 2,000 vehicles into Yellowstone National Park.