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Corridors · Vol. 008Byway

A loop through what the mines left

An All-American Road in Colorado, one of 16 scenic routes mapped in the state, touching seven units of park and public land on a single loop.

The San Juan Skyway is a loop, and what it loops through is an industry that stopped. The surfaced places say so plainly: a Historic Mine Cart, the Corkscrew Gulch Turntable, the Pioneer Museum, the Animas Museum, the Telluride Historical Museum, the Powerhouse Science Centre.

Four museums on one loop is not a region with a lot of history. It is a region with a lot of buildings that needed a second use.

The shape of the leftovers

A turntable is the giveaway. You build one where a railway has to reverse a locomotive in a space too narrow to turn it — which is to say, in a gulch, on a line that exists to move ore. Nobody lays that for scenery.

The hot springs sit in the same account: Rico 1, Rico 2 and Orvis Hot Spring. Water that comes up warm is the reason some of these towns were findable at all, and it is what several of them sell now.

Seven units of public land on one loop

Against the committed boundaries the corridor comes within reach of Mesa Verde, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area, and three national forests — San Juan, Rio Grande, and Grand Mesa Uncompahgre and Gunnison.

Seven, on a road you can drive back to where you started. That is the argument for a loop over an out-and-back: the same day buys you a different set of public land in every quarter of it.

Five overlooks, high up

Gold Point. Twilight Peak. Molas Pass. Red Mountain Overlook. Look Out Point. Two of the five are named for a pass or a peak, one for a colour of rock, and one — Gold Point — for the thing everybody came here to find.

The song

Volume 008 of the byway series is Go Around Again. On the only one of these roads that returns you to where you started, it is less a sentiment than an instruction.

The song · Vol. 008

Go Around Again

On Byway
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Corridors · Vol. 028

Four lookouts and thirteen waterfalls

Oregon's Historic Columbia River has four catalogued lookouts and thirteen waterfalls on the byway itself, all thirteen within eight miles of each other.

Corridors · Vol. 027

Three overlooks together, and one out on its own

Three of the seven lookouts on Utah's Dinosaur Diamond Scenic Byway sit inside three quarters of a mile. One sits forty-eight miles from any other.

Corridors · Vol. 026

Seven lookouts, and four of them say Denali

Four of the seven lookouts on Alaska's George Parks Highway carry the name Denali View, and three of them sit inside six tenths of a mile.

Corridors · Vol. 025

Twenty viewpoints, and the seals got four of the names

Four of the twenty lookouts on California's San Luis Obispo North Coast Byway are named for seals. Two others share the name Vista Pt.

Corridors · Vol. 024

Four overlooks together, and one on its own

Four of the five overlooks on Oregon's Hells Canyon byway sit within six tenths of a mile. The fifth, named for the canyon, stands nineteen miles off.

Corridors · Vol. 023

A river road where the hills got the names

Seven of the fourteen lookouts on the Connecticut River Byway are named for high ground. None of the fourteen is named for the river.

Corridors · Vol. 022

Three vistas, and just over a mile between them

The three vistas on Arizona's Red Rock Scenic Byway sit within about a mile. The one named for Bell Rock is the farthest of the three from it.

Corridors · Vol. 021

Six viewpoints, and the mountain comes last

One of the six viewpoints on the Chinook Scenic Byway is named for Mount Rainier. It is the last on the list, sixteen miles from the first.

Corridors · Vol. 020

Nineteen lookouts, and three of them are blinds

Eleven of the nineteen lookouts on the Great Lakes Seaway Trail are named for what you look from: towers, decks, mounds, blinds, a cliff top.

Corridors · Vol. 019

Twelve lookouts, 138 miles, one short stretch

Oregon's Volcanic Legacy runs 138 miles, and all twelve of its catalogued lookouts sit within six and a half straight-line miles of each other.

Corridors · Vol. 018

One valley, catalogued three times

Three of the seven lookouts on the Newfound Gap Road Byway are Deep Creek Valley. Six of the seven sit within just over two miles of each other.

Corridors · Vol. 017

Six lookouts, and the tide is on the list twice

The six lookouts on Alaska's Seward Highway are named for a marsh, a point, two lakes and, twice, a tide. None shares a name with a nearby peak.

Corridors · Vol. 016

Three curves, three rocks and an altitude

All ten overlooks on Colorado's Trail Ridge Road sit inside eleven straight-line miles. Three are named for curves, three for rock, one for an altitude.

Corridors · Vol. 015

Ten overlooks, and the long waits come last

Seven of the ten overlooks on Minnesota's North Shore Scenic Drive fall inside 56 straight-line miles. The last three are spread across the next 82.

Corridors · Vol. 014

Eleven overlooks, and seven of them in one place

Seven of the eleven overlooks on New York's Lakes to Locks Passage sit within three quarters of a mile of each other. The other four are scattered.

Corridors · Vol. 013

A town where eight streets each end in a view

Eight of the twenty overlooks on Oregon's Pacific Coast are named for the streets that reach them, and all eight sit within a quarter of a mile.

Corridors · Vol. 011

A road that counts itself in mileposts

Six of the twelve surfaced overlooks carry their milepost in their own name. They run from 105.6 to 411.8 — three hundred miles of numbered stopping.

Corridors · Vol. 012

A desert road that names itself after water

Four of the fourteen overlooks on Utah's Highway 12 carry water in their names, and a fifth is named for what water leaves behind. The road crosses a desert.

Corridors · Vol. 009

Named for a mountain it never reaches

Mount Kancamagus stands 1,127 m, seven tenths of a mile off the road that carries its name. The five overlooks face water and low hills instead.

Corridors · Vol. 010

An All-American Road where nothing is from here

An Eiffel Tower, a Paris balloon, flamingos, a shark reef, and five museums of other people's pasts. The Strip's roster is a list of somewhere else.

Corridors · Vol. 003

Everything on the Beartooth is named for height

Butte, mountain, peak, palisades, cliffs, bluff, vista. The named features along this All-American Road describe elevation and almost nothing else.

Corridors · Vol. 004

Route 66 builds monuments to businesses

On Route 66 through central Illinois, one stop is a memorial to a restaurant and another is a restaurant's sign, listed as a place in its own right.

Corridors · Vol. 005

On Big Sur, the bridges are the landmarks

Bixby Creek, Rocky Creek, Granite Canyon. Three bridges are surfaced as places along Route 1, and one of them is also a viewpoint in its own right.

Corridors · Vol. 006

The Parkway is numbered, not signposted

The Blue Ridge Parkway measures itself in mileposts, and 73 of its overlooks are named after the number they stand at.

Corridors · Vol. 007

The Keys road has two overlooks and three national parks

Both surfaced overlooks on the Florida Keys Hwy are called Observation Tower and Observation Platform. On this road, there is nothing to pull off and look at.