{"id":81,"date":"2008-05-09T16:11:38","date_gmt":"2008-05-09T21:11:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=81"},"modified":"2022-04-18T06:09:01","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T11:09:01","slug":"highest-contiguous-road-in-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/","title":{"rendered":"Highest Contiguous Road in USA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Mountainous roads climb to great heights in the western United States. But which one climbs the highest? As with many topics on Twelve Mile Circle, the answer depends. Does the road have to cross a mountain on the way between two points or can it stop at a dead end at the top? Does the quality of the road matter? Must it be a highway or can it be a rugged gravel path? Each slice produces a separate answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So I have chosen to highlight the <em>highest contiguous, paved<\/em> highway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/maps\/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d48584.78214461771!2d-105.78956822360702!3d40.44098697936231!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x8769834867b98fbb%3A0x4a83594e52ba274f!2sAlpine%20Visitor%20Center!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1617273749988!5m2!1sen!2sus\" style=\"border:0;\" allowfullscreen=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Within that definition the answer is Trail Ridge Road, a leg of U.S. Highway 34 running straight through the heart of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/romo\/index.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Rocky Mountain National Park<\/a>. It doesn&#8217;t stop at the top of the ridge. Rather it runs for 48 miles, connecting Estes Park and Grand Lake, Colorado. At its highest point Trail Ridge Road reaches 12,183 feet (3,713 meters), just east of the Alpine Visitor Center between the Gore Range and Lava Cliffs overlooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg\" alt=\"Rocky Mountain National Park Vista. Photo by howderfamily.com; (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Much of the road climbs well above the treeline, with amazing unobstructed views of Rocky Mountain summits on all sides. It can be somewhat disorienting when one stops at an overlook and begins to walk along the trails. It takes a little while to get acclimated to the altitude and physical exertion only accentuates the problem. When I visited several years ago I soon became lightheaded, dizzy and irritable thanks to oxygen deprivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I do have more information and photographs about <a href=\"\/blog\/?p=22641\">my travels along Trail Ridge Road<\/a> on my permanent website. Take a look if you want to learn more about the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mountainous roads climb to great heights in the western United States. But which one climbs the highest? As with many topics on Twelve Mile Circle, the answer depends. Does the road have to cross a mountain on the way between two points or can it stop at a dead end at the top? Does the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95,11,77],"tags":[523,521,524,522,517,525,526,519,518,520],"class_list":["post-81","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elevation","category-roads","category-terrain","tag-alpine","tag-estes-park","tag-gore-range","tag-grand-lake","tag-highest-road","tag-lava-cliffs","tag-oxygen-deprivation","tag-rocky-mountain-national-park","tag-rocky-mountains","tag-trail-ridge-road"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Highest Contiguous Road in USA - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the highest road elevation in the contiguous United States? Well, it varies based on the definition.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Highest Contiguous Road in USA - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the highest road elevation in the contiguous United States? Well, it varies based on the definition.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-05-09T21:11:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-18T11:09:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheReal12MC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheReal12MC\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Twelve Mile Circle\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Twelve Mile Circle\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"headline\":\"Highest Contiguous Road in USA\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-09T21:11:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T11:09:01+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":270,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/graphics\\\/travel\\\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Alpine\",\"Estes Park\",\"Gore Range\",\"Grand Lake\",\"Highest Road\",\"Lava Cliffs\",\"Oxygen Deprivation\",\"Rocky Mountain National Park\",\"Rocky Mountains\",\"Trail Ridge Road\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Elevation\",\"Roads\",\"Terrain\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/\",\"name\":\"Highest Contiguous Road in USA - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/graphics\\\/travel\\\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-05-09T21:11:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-18T11:09:01+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the highest road elevation in the contiguous United States? Well, it varies based on the definition.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/graphics\\\/travel\\\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/graphics\\\/travel\\\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Highest Contiguous Road in USA\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places\",\"description\":\"(scroll down if article doesn&#039;t appear)\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e\",\"name\":\"Twelve Mile Circle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Twelve Mile Circle\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/12\\\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.twelvemilecircle.com\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/TheReal12MC\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.howderfamily.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/tom\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Highest Contiguous Road in USA - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places","description":"What is the highest road elevation in the contiguous United States? Well, it varies based on the definition.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Highest Contiguous Road in USA - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places","og_description":"What is the highest road elevation in the contiguous United States? Well, it varies based on the definition.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/","og_site_name":"Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places","article_published_time":"2008-05-09T21:11:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-18T11:09:01+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Twelve Mile Circle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@TheReal12MC","twitter_site":"@TheReal12MC","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Twelve Mile Circle","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/"},"author":{"name":"Twelve Mile Circle","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e"},"headline":"Highest Contiguous Road in USA","datePublished":"2008-05-09T21:11:38+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-18T11:09:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/"},"wordCount":270,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg","keywords":["Alpine","Estes Park","Gore Range","Grand Lake","Highest Road","Lava Cliffs","Oxygen Deprivation","Rocky Mountain National Park","Rocky Mountains","Trail Ridge Road"],"articleSection":["Elevation","Roads","Terrain"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/","url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/","name":"Highest Contiguous Road in USA - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg","datePublished":"2008-05-09T21:11:38+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-18T11:09:01+00:00","description":"What is the highest road elevation in the contiguous United States? Well, it varies based on the definition.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/graphics\/travel\/colorado_rocky_mountain_national_park_1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/highest-contiguous-road-in-usa\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Highest Contiguous Road in USA"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/","name":"Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places","description":"(scroll down if article doesn&#039;t appear)","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9d80a5a18ef467b299e8ca0ed890ba1e","name":"Twelve Mile Circle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Twelve Mile Circle"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/cropped-1862map_for_blog_header-1.jpg"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.twelvemilecircle.com\/","https:\/\/x.com\/TheReal12MC"],"url":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/author\/tom\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29448,"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/29448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}