Longest Dead End Roads

[roadman65]

Dixie County Road 349 extends 24 miles from US 19 at Old Town, FL to a small unincorporated community called Suwanee at the end of a two lane road with no other through paved roads along its 24 mile alignment.  So we can say all of CR 349 is a dead end.

Levy County Road 40 between Inglis and Yankeetown is another, but only 6 miles and really 2 count as CR 40A loops off of it to connect to US 19 & 98.

So for this thread to be interesting how about roads numbered or unnumbered that extend beyond 10 miles from its last major intersection with no outlet to any other major roadways.

[hotdogPi]

US 1 to the Florida Keys, and the bridge to Prince Edward Island, if you ignore the ferries.

QC 368 to ÃŽle d'Orléans.

There are probably several in the Canadian territories.

[Max Rockatansky]

CA 180/Cedar Grove Road goes 51 miles east of Hume Lake Junction into Cedar Grove of Kings Canyon National Park:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Kanawyers,+CA/Logger+Flat+Group+Campground,+CA-180,+Hume,+CA+93628/@36.8078118,-118.7600394,10z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m2!1m1!1s0x80bfd97c5ec0f555:0xb9092c710f0d0789!1m2!1m1!1s0x8095716ec7bfd6ed:0x134d61e8be7dfb7a!3e0

[vdeane]

If we're counting things like US 1 in the Keys and TCH 1 in PEI, then I'll add the Trans-Taiga Rd in Québec, which runs for over 360 miles from the James Bay Rd to Lac Pau Water Aerodrome, with only minor loops and spurs connecting to small communities and infrastructure and nothing else.

[dfilpus]

North Carolina 12 - from south of Whalebone Junction to the Ocracoke Ferry is 54 miles.

[vdeane]

Does this road in Siberia count?  It's over 1000 miles.  The Dalton Highway (AK 11/over 400 miles) might count as well.

[oscar]

Does this road in Siberia count?  It's over 1000 miles.  The Dalton Highway (AK 11/over 400 miles) might count as well.

Depends on what counts as a "dead end" (rather than "no outlet"). There are several roads branching off from the Dalton along the way, as well as several roads in the Deadhorse area. However, none of these provide or connect to an alternate route that would let you completely bypass the Dalton on your return trip.

[vdeane]

Does this road in Siberia count?  It's over 1000 miles.  The Dalton Highway (AK 11/over 400 miles) might count as well.

Depends on what counts as a "dead end" (rather than "no outlet"). There are several roads branching off from the Dalton along the way, as well as several roads in the Deadhorse area. However, none of these provide or connect to an alternate route that would let you completely bypass the Dalton on your return trip.

Yeah, all my examples are predicated on things like US 1 in the keys being allowed.  I would have read the thread stricter, but if that's the way we're going, may as well put in the uber-long examples from the far north.

[thspfc]

US-45 dead-ends in Ontonagon, Michigan. It's ridiculous how the 1,000+ mile route dead ends, but M-26 continues up the peninsula on what should be US-45's route.

[vdeane]

US-45 dead-ends in Ontonagon, Michigan. It's ridiculous how the 1,000+ mile route dead ends, but M-26 continues up the peninsula on what should be US-45's route.

It doesn't look like the road dead ends at all, assuming Google is marking the end right, and even if it isn't, this would actually be a really short example, as we're only considering the part from the last road where multiple paths can be taken out to the end, not the whole route leading to that point.  The far north examples are only as long as they are because those areas are just THAT sparsely populated.

Perhaps the clearest example would be YT 6 and the road continuing into NWT north of Ross River, which is around 150 miles long.  Unlike other examples here, that one is a true, unambiguous dead end.  There are no towns, no spur roads, no nothing.  Just vast wilderness (add a few more miles if extending through Ross River to YT 4).

[mgk920]

Is HI 93 northwest of the west end of I-H1 a 'no outlet' situation?

Mike

[oscar]

Perhaps the clearest example would be YT 6 and the road continuing into NWT north of Ross River, which is around 150 miles long.  Unlike other examples here, that one is a true, unambiguous dead end.  There are no towns, no spur roads, no nothing.  Just vast wilderness (add a few more miles if extending through Ross River to YT 4).

There are several short spur roads, leading to mines, unattended airstrips/floatplane docks, and informal campgrounds (one of which I used, near the NWT border).

[Eth]

Is HI 93 northwest of the west end of I-H1 a 'no outlet' situation?

Mike

There appears to be one road, Kolekole Road, connecting up to the Wahiawa area, but it's marked on OSM as private (and runs through Schofield Barracks Military Reservation), so for all intents and purposes, yes.

[oscar]

There appears to be one road, Kolekole Road, connecting up to the Wahiawa area, but it's marked on OSM as private (and runs through Schofield Barracks Military Reservation), so for all intents and purposes, yes.

It also passes through an ammunition depot, which is even more heavily restricted. Pre-9/11, I was able to drive that road through Schofield Barracks, but had to turn back at the depot.

There is an old road that once connected HI 93 with HI 930, and even was proposed as a new Interstate when Hawaii became a state (that request went nowhere). Later landslides, and a stone wall at the entrance to the Kaena Point nature preserve, blocked vehicle traffic, though I was able to hike the entire route.

HI 130 on the Big Island is kind of a "no outlet" situation, with no regular alternate route between HI 139 in Keaau and Pahoa (focus of a large road network in the Puna coast area). Last time lava flows came close to severing that connection (and actually did destroy some other roads near Pahoa), a one-lane gravel emergency escape route was cut through lava fields in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, to connect HI 130 with the part of the park's Chain of Craters Road that had not been destroyed by earlier lava flows. That road is normally closed to vehicle traffic, but can be hiked (and I covered a small part of it, though my flip-flops and need to get back to the Hilo airport kept me from going farther).

[nexus73]

For an Oregon state route, 46 likely takes the cake at 19.33 miles from US 199 in Cave Junction to the Oregon Caves National Monument.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_Route_46

Rick

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN:
The Gunflint Trail, Cook County 12: It appears the last place where you can turn off and theoretically return to MN 61 via forest and county roads is unpaved Forest Road 309, and north of there is 40 miles of dead end.

MI:
Where US 41/M-26 cross the lift bridge from Houghton to Hancock, there are no other bridge crossings. 50 miles of dead end to the end of US 41, and then the unpaved road to the end of the peninsula.

[mgk920]

There appears to be one road, Kolekole Road, connecting up to the Wahiawa area, but it's marked on OSM as private (and runs through Schofield Barracks Military Reservation), so for all intents and purposes, yes.

It also passes through an ammunition depot, which is even more heavily restricted. Pre-9/11, I was able to drive that road through Schofield Barracks, but had to turn back at the depot.

There is an old road that once connected HI 93 with HI 930, and even was proposed as a new Interstate when Hawaii became a state (that request went nowhere). Later landslides, and a stone wall at the entrance to the Kaena Point nature preserve, blocked vehicle traffic, though I was able to hike the entire route.

I know that there have been proposals to drill a tunnel to bypass Kaena Point and give that HI 93 west shore area a 'second way out', but am unaware of whether or not any of them are still active.

MI:
Where US 41/M-26 cross the lift bridge from Houghton to Hancock, there are no other bridge crossings. 50 miles of dead end to the end of US 41, and then the unpaved road to the end of the peninsula.

There was also such a situation in Sturgeon Bay, WI for Door County north of the Ship Canal there, but that ended when the WI 42/57 Sturgeon Bay bypass was completed in the mid 1970s.

In addition, the unpaved road that continues on from the north end of US 41 circles back and re-intersects it southwest of Copper Harbor, MI.

Mike