U.S. Route 89A

U.S. Route 89, Utah, United States, North America

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• published: 25 May 2013
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U.S. Route 89 (US 89) is a north–south United States Highway with two sections, and one former section. The southern section runs for 848 miles (1,365 kilometers) from Flagstaff, Arizona, to the southern entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The northern section runs for 404 miles (650 kilometers) from the northern entrance of Yellowstone National Park to Montana, ending at the Canadian border. An implied route through Yellowstone connects the two sections. Before 1992, U.S. Highway 89 was a Canada to Mexico, border-to-border, highway that ended at Nogales, Arizona, on its southern end. Sometimes called the National Park Highway, U.S. 89 links seven national parks across the Mountain West. In addition, fourteen other national park areas, mostly national monuments are also reachable from this backbone of the Rockies. The first city in Utah along either U.S. 89 or U.S. 89A is Kanab where the two routes re-unite. From Kanab U.S. 89 proceeds north passing by the Zion National Park and the Bryce Canyon National Park. It eventually enters the Sevier County, Utah, and the Sanpete Valleys. The highway then passes by Thistle, Utah, a ghost town that was destroyed by a landslide in 1983. The highway then enters the Wasatch Front where U.S. 89 becomes the main streets of the largest cities in Utah. The highway is also often in the shadows of Interstate 15 during its route along the Wasatch Front. U.S. 89 runs concurrent with I 15 from Bountiful to Farmington, where it departs and runs at the base of the Wasatch Mountains until it reaches Ogden. In Ogden, the highway is Washington Blvd. From Ogden the highway runs north until it meets U.S. 91 at Brigham City, Utah, where it turns east and goes to serve the Cache Valley and Logan, Utah. In Logan, U.S. 89 is Main Street and it passes by the campus of the Utah State University. The highway next proceeds up Logan Canyon to Bear Lake where the highway exits Utah. Two sections of U.S. 89 in Utah have been designated Scenic Byways. The Kanab to Mt. Carmel and Long Valley Scenic Byway is a designated Utah Scenic Byway. From Logan to Bear Lake is designated as the Logan Canyon Scenic Byway by the National Scenic Byways project. The section of U.S. 89 in Utah, other than concurrencies with Interstate 70, Interstate 15, U.S. Highway 6, and U.S. Highway 91, is defined in the Utah Code Annotated § 72-4-114(8). Utah is dominated by the Colorado Plateau. Along U.S. 89 are the Zion National Park, the Bryce Canyon National Park, and the Cedar Breaks National Monument. Although not readily adjacent to U.S. 89, the Capitol Reef National Park is accessible from U.S. 89. U.S. 89 leaves northern Utah well-north of Salt Lake City and the Timpanogos Cave National Monument and the Golden Spike National Historic Site. Prior to 1992, the southern terminus of US 89 was at Nogales, Arizona, and the highway proceeded to Flagstaff, Arizona, along what is now I-19, State Route 79, US 60, US 93, and State Route 89. In addition, there was another US 89A in Arizona between Prescott and Flagstaff on which is now State Route 89A. In central Arizona, the need for a north–south U.S. Highway was largely superseded by the completion of I-17, which now carries the bulk of the traffic and all of the heavy trucks along this north–south corridor. I-17 connects I-40 in Flagstaff with I-10 in Phoenix, Arizona, along a very hilly route that also passes through the Verde Valley. US 89 was discontinuous for most of 1983 due to a landslide that destroyed the town of Thistle, Utah and closed the highway for about 8 months in central Utah. From early 2013 to mid 2015, US 89 was closed approximately 25 miles south of Page, Arizona, due to a geological event that caused the roadway to buckle and subside. Traffic was being re-routed via 45 miles of secondary and tertiary roads on the Navajo Nation. U.S. Route 89T opened on August 29, 2013, a 28-mile (45 km) paved portion of a Navajo route to serve as a long-term bypass of the closed section.