U.S. Route 287

U.S. Route 287 is a north–south United States highway. It is 1,791 miles (2,882 km) long. It serves as the major truck route between Fort Worth, Texas and Amarillo, Texas, and between Fort Collins, Colorado and Laramie, Wyoming. The highway is broken into two segments by Yellowstone National Park, where an unnumbered park road serves as a connector.

The highway's northern terminus is in Choteau, Montana, 100 miles (161 km) south of the Canadian border, at an intersection with U.S. Route 89. Its southern terminus (as well as those of US 69 and US 96) is in Port Arthur, Texas at an intersection with State Highway 87, five miles (8 km) up the Sabine River from the Gulf of Mexico. It intersects its parent route U.S. Route 87 twice, overlapping it from Amarillo, Texas to Dumas, Texas, and then crossing it in Denver, Colorado.

US 287 is the shortest route between Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Route description

Texas

U.S. 287 originates at its southern terminus in Port Arthur, TX as a branch of State Highway 87. From Port Arthur, U.S. 287 is co-signed with US 69 and US 96 to Lumberton, where U.S. 96 diverges to the northeast and the co-signed U.S. 287/69 continues northwest until U.S. 287 and U.S. 69 diverge in Woodville. Continuing northwest, U.S. 287 merges with I-45 in Corsicana and follows the interstate to Ennis, where it branches off and continues through Waxahachie, crossing I-35E and continuing north through Tarrant County, where it encounters and briefly merges with three different interstates (I-820, I-20, and I-35W). From Fort Worth, U.S. 287 continues north to Wichita Falls and continues just south of the Oklahoma border before entering the Texas Panhandle.

U.S. Route 287 in Texas

U.S. Highway 287 (US 287) in the U.S. state of Texas is a U.S. Highway that begins on the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur and heads north through Fort Worth, northwest to Childress, Clarendon, and Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma near Kerrick.

Route description

US 287 crosses into Texas at Kerrick and continues southeast through to Stratford, where it takes a more southerly turn. In Dumas, US 287 merges with its "parent route", US 87, and continues its south/southeasterly path as a co-signed route to Amarillo.

After passing through the heart of downtown Amarillo, US 87 splits off to the south to merge with I-27, and US 287 merges with I-40 and continues co-signed with the interstate until just west of Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, where it veers to the southeast toward Claude, the seat of Armstrong County.

US 287 follows this east-southeasterly path through Clarendon and Childress, where it intersects US Highways 83 and 62. US 287 then proceeds to Vernon, where it merges with (and is briefly co-signed with) US 70 and US 183. After US 70 and US 183 leave the route at Oklaunion and veer to the northeast, US 287 resumes its east-southeasterly track passing through Harrold and Electra on its way to Wichita Falls. On the northwest side of the city US 287 merges with I-44, US 82, and (briefly) US 277. After leaving Wichita Falls, US 82/287 continues as a co-signed route until Henrietta, where US 82 leaves the route. After merging with US 81 in Bowie, US 287/81 continues southeast to Fort Worth, where it merges with I-35W on the north side of town. Just northwest of this interchange, Business US 287 veers off to the right following the original routing into Saginaw and into downtown Fort Worth while zig zagging its way through city streets to Kennedale and Mansfield before coming out onto the US 287 Freeway south of Interstate 20 near the Ellis County line just north of Midlothian.