Collegiate Peaks Scenic Byway
Collegiate Peaks Scenic Byway is a State Scenic Byway in Colorado. Within Colorado it covers roughly 60 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Collegiate Peaks Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
This byway runs the upper Arkansas River valley on US-24 and State Route 82 past the Collegiate Peaks, a remarkable wall of fourteeners named for universities — Mounts Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and Oxford among them. Buena Vista and Salida anchor the route, with riverside hot springs and some of the state's best whitewater. State Route 82 climbs toward Independence Pass, the highest paved through-route across the Continental Divide.
- Collegiate fourteeners
- Arkansas River whitewater
- hot springs
- Buena Vista & Salida
- Independence Pass
Plan a drive on Collegiate Peaks Scenic Byway →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.