Skip to main content

Nevada State Route 431; the Mount Rose Highway

Back in 2016 I had a chance to drive Nevada State Route 431 from NV 28 at Lake Tahoe northeast to US 395A/NV 341 south of Reno.






NV 431 is a 24.4 mile State Highway and as the sign above states is reputed to be the highest all-year pass in the Sierra Nevada Range at 8,911 feet above sea level.  The Mount Rose Highway has been a Signed State Highway for a long time first appearing on the Nevada State Highway Map in 1932 as NV 27.

1932 Nevada State Highway Map

Unlike nearby NV 28 the numbering of NV 27 was reassigned to NV 431 in 1976 during the Nevada State Highway renumbering.  The new designation of NV 431 appears alongside NV 27 on the Mount Rose Highway on the 1978 Nevada State Highway Map.

1978 Nevada State Highway Map

NV 431 starts eastward from NV 28 on the northeast shore of Lake Tahoe in Incline Village at approximately 6,350 feet above sea level.


From Incline Village NV 431 begins to ascend quickly and has a massive vista of Lake Tahoe at the first major hairpin.


NV 431 quickly rises to the 8,911 feet Mount Rose Summit.


Truckee Meadows can be seen ahead from Mount Rose northeast on NV 431.


From Mount Rose NV 431 begins to descend rapidly crossing through the Mount Rose Ski Area.  NV431 has a minor unsigned junction at NV 878/Slide Mountain Ski Bowl Highway.


The rapid descent of NV 431 to Truckee Meadows continues through a large number of wide switchbacks before straightening out on a steep descent.


NV 431 has a junction with US 395/I-580 before terminating at the junction of NV 341/US 395A.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Paper Highways: The Unbuilt New Orleans Bypass (Proposed I-410)

  There are many examples around the United States of proposed freeway corridors in urban areas that never saw the light of day for one reason or another. They all fall somewhere in between the little-known and the infamous and from the mundane to the spectacular. One of the more obscure and interesting examples of such a project is the short-lived idea to construct a southern beltway for the New Orleans metropolitan area in the 1960s and 70s. Greater New Orleans and its surrounding area grew rapidly in the years after World War II, as suburban sprawl encroached on the historically rural downriver parishes around the city. In response to the development of the region’s Westbank and the emergence of communities in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist Parishes as viable suburban communities during this period, regional planners began to consider concepts for new infrastructure projects to serve this growing population.  The idea for a circular freeway around the southern perimeter of t

Hernando de Soto Bridge (Memphis, TN)

The newest of the bridges that span the lower Mississippi River at Memphis, the Hernando de Soto Bridge was completed in 1973 and carries Interstate 40 between downtown Memphis and West Memphis, AR. The bridge’s signature M-shaped superstructure makes it an instantly recognizable landmark in the city and one of the most visually unique bridges on the Mississippi River. As early as 1953, Memphis city planners recommended the construction of a second highway bridge across the Mississippi River to connect the city with West Memphis, AR. The Memphis & Arkansas Bridge had been completed only four years earlier a couple miles downriver from downtown, however it was expected that long-term growth in the metro area would warrant the construction of an additional bridge, the fourth crossing of the Mississippi River to be built at Memphis, in the not-too-distant future. Unlike the previous three Mississippi River bridges to be built the city, the location chosen for this bridge was about two

Huey P. Long Bridge (New Orleans, LA)

Located on the lower Mississippi River a few miles west of New Orleans, the Huey P. Long Bridge is an enormous steel truss bridge that carries both road and rail traffic on an old-time structure that is a fascinating example of a bridge that has evolved in recent years to meet the traffic and safety demands of modern times. While officially located in suburban Jefferson Parish near the unincorporated community of Bridge City, this bridge’s location is most often associated with New Orleans, given that it’s the largest and most recognizable incorporated population center in the nearby vicinity. For this reason, this blog article considers the bridge’s location to be in New Orleans, even though this isn’t 100% geographically correct. Completed in 1935 as the first bridge across the Mississippi River in Louisiana and the first to be built in the New Orleans area, this bridge is one of two bridges on the Mississippi named for Huey P. Long, a Louisiana politician who served as the 40th Gove