U.S. Route 199 - Route Description

Route Description

US 199 begins at a partial interchange with US 101 northeast of Crescent City; Elk Valley Cross Road (County Route D2) connects the two routes just to the north for full access. The highway quickly enters the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, climbs over a ridge, crosses the Smith River, and meets State Route 197 (which heads northeast to US 101 via the Smith River). US 199 follows the banks of the river and its Middle Fork as it takes a steady but curvy climb through the Smith River National Recreation Area in the Six Rivers National Forest, passing the settlements of Gasquet and Patrick Creek. As it approaches the summit, the Middle Fork Smith River turns east, but US 199 continues northeast, following Griffin Creek to near its source (where there is a rest area), and passing under Hazel View Summit, the border between the Smith River NRA and the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, in the 1963 Collier Tunnel (elevation about 2100 feet/650 m). (The old curving route over the summit still exists as Oregon Mountain Road.) Upon leaving the tunnel, US 199 descends alongside the small Broken Kettle Creek into the Elk Valley and crosses into Oregon.

US 199 leaves the national forest as it enters Oregon and descends into the Illinois Valley, passing O'Brien and the west end of OR 46 in Cave Junction. North of Cave Junction, US 199 leaves the Illinois River, which curves west towards the ocean, and follows several small creeks past Selma to Hayes Hill Summit (elevation about 1700 feet/500 m). The highway descends from the summit alongside Slate Creek past Wonder and Wilderville and ends up in the Rogue River Valley, where it enters Grants Pass.

South of downtown Grants Pass, US 199 meets OR 99 and OR 238 and splits at a partial interchange. The main Redwood Highway turns north with OR 99, passing through downtown and ending at exit 58 of I-5, while the Redwood Spur, locally known as Grants Pass Parkway, continues straight, bypassing downtown to end at I-5 exit 55. Both of these are signed in both directions as US 199, while signage on US 199 itself at the split only shows "OR 99 north" for the mainline through downtown and "to I-5" for the bypass. On I-5, exit 55 is marked as "US 199", but exit 58 is "OR 99 to US 199". The Oregon Transportation Commission's defined routing of US 199 takes it along the main Redwood Highway through downtown, and the OTC calls the spur to exit 55 "US 199 Spur", but, consistent with signs on I-5 (but not on the surface), the Oregon Department of Transportation calls the spur US 199 and the downtown route OR 99 only.

The older route through downtown is a one-way pair on Sixth (southbound) and Seventh (northbound) Streets, entirely overlapping OR 99 to I-5 exit 58, where OR 99 continues with I-5 to the north. The Caveman Bridge, a concrete through arch bridge built in 1927, carries Sixth Street over the Rogue River, while the parallel Seventh Street Bridge is a utilitarian bridge from 1960. The Grants Pass Parkway (Redwood Spur) also crosses the river on a four-lane bridge built in 1990; before that bypass was completed, the spur began downtown on E (southbound) and F (northbound) Streets. Soon after the old and new routes join, the spur ends at a trumpet interchange with I-5 (exit 55).