Colorado State Highway 82

Colorado State Highway 82

State Highway 82 is an 85.3-mile (137.3 km) long state highway in the U.S. state of Colorado. Its eastern half provides the principal transportation artery of the Roaring Fork Valley on the Colorado Western Slope, beginning at Glenwood Springs southeast past Carbondale, Basalt and Aspen. From there it continues up the Roaring Fork Valley to cross the Continental Divide at Independence Pass. On the Eastern Slope, it follows Lake Creek past some of Colorado's highest mountains to Twin Lakes Reservoir, where it ends at U.S. Route 24 south of Leadville.

The traverse of Independence Pass is, at 12,095 feet (3,687 m) above sea level, the highest paved crossing of the Continental Divide in North America, and the highest paved through road on Colorado's state highway network. It is closed during the winter months, isolating Aspen from the east and making Highway 82 the only way to reach the popular ski resort town by road. A private foundation has worked with the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which maintains the road, to undo environmental damage to the alpine tundra created when a disused stagecoach route built across the pass during the Colorado Silver Boom of the 1880s was revived to become Highway 82 in the early 20th century.

West of Aspen the highway follows the route of an early Colorado Midland Railroad route from the city to Glenwood Springs. Paved during the 1930s, this road has been gradually expanded to four lanes over the course of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Aspen's economic rebirth as a resort town during that time has added increasing amounts of traffic that have required high-occupancy vehicle lanes, bypasses and the replacement of at least one old bridge. Plans continue to be made and debated in both Glenwood Springs and Aspen for even more improvements.