US 89: From Flagstaff to Yellowstone and beyond

While fans of Taylor Sheridan's "Yellowstone" will have to wait until November 2024 for the final episodes of the television series, did you know that you can travel from Flagstaff to Yellowstone National Park without ever leaving US 89?

Oh, the photo? Yes, that’s recognizable actor Forrie J. Smith, who plays grizzled ranch hand Lloyd Pierce in the TV show “Yellowstone,” posing with a member of one of our maintenance crews in northern Arizona a couple winters ago.

That’s right, we’re using this photo of a beloved character in a TV show that has the same name as America's first national park to share a brief history lesson of US 89, which is sometimes called the “National Parks Highway” because it travels through seven national parks and 14 other national parks are easily reachable. We certainly strive to make connections here on the ADOT Blog. 

US 89’s southern end begins in Flagstaff and goes north in Arizona to Page where it travels across the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge over the Colorado River before entering Utah. From there, US 89 continues north into southeast Idaho and slips into western Wyoming – this is where US 89 enters Yellowstone National Park – before crossing through Montana and terminating at the U.S.-Canada border near Babb, Mont. National Geographic Traveler named US 89 one of its Top 10 Drivers’ Drives in the world in 2010.

Today, from Flagstaff to its terminus at the US-Canada border, US 89 travels 1,215 miles. When US 89 was built, it originally ran border-to-border from Mexico to Canada. 

In Arizona, it cut a fairly straight path north from the border at Nogales through Tucson to Florence before veering west through Mesa and Phoenix to Wickenburg. There it began its mountain section by climbing up Yarnell Hill, skirting the western slopes of the Bradshaw range to arrive in Prescott.

From Prescott, the highway crossed forests, mountains and the valley of the upper Verde River to reach Ash Fork, before turning east toward Flagstaff.

Arizona Journeys, pages 32-34

When interstates 19, 10 and 17 were constructed in Arizona, they took over US 89’s function as a north-south connector and Flagstaff became the southern terminus of the federal highway.

This blog post from 2018 has more about the history of US 89 in Arizona.