U.S. Route 36 (US 36) is an east–west United States highway that travels approximately from Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado to Uhrichsville, Ohio. The highway's western terminus is at Deer Ridge Junction, an intersection in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, where it meets US 34. Its eastern terminus is at US 250 in Uhrichsville, Ohio. Route description Colorado US Route 36 begins at US 34 at Deer Ridge Junction in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, just west of Estes Park. It then passes through Boulder and Denver on its way to Kansas. Between Boulder and Denver, the road that is now US 36 was originally built as the Denver-Boulder Turnpike. It serves today as a major arterial freeway in the Front Range Urban Corridor. Between Denver and Byers, US 36 exists in unsigned overlaps with I-270 and I-70, while some parts of its original route are signed separately as Colorado State Highway 36. After it diverges from I-70 in Byers, US 36 is a relatively lightly-traveled two-lane rural highway to the Kansas state line. Kansas US-36 passes through all 13 counties in Kansas which border Nebraska. The highway enters the Sunflower State from Colorado in Cheyenne County, and leaves the state by crossing the Missouri River on the Pony Express Bridges entering Missouri. The section of US-36 from Washington, Kansas to St. Joseph, Missouri is officially called the Pony Express Highway because it marks the starting section of the Pony Express. It crosses the Missouri River on the Pony Express Bridges. From the western junction with K-383 to the Missouri state line, US-36 is part of the National Highway System. Except for wider sections in towns and passing lanes on hills, US-36 through Kansas is mostly a two-lane surface road. However some of the principal intersections all along the road are grade-separated diamond interchanges. From the Little Blue River just west of the K-148 junction to the US-77 North junction just west of the Big Blue River at Marysville, US-36 is a four-lane divided surface highway. From Hiawatha to west of Wathena, the road is a two-lane freeway. After passing through Wathena as a surface street (Riverside High School in Wathena fronts the westbound lanes), it becomes a four-lane freeway to the Missouri state line. Missouri US 36 across Missouri is a four-lane expressway with some freeway sections, passing through or near St. Joseph, Cameron, Chillicothe, Brookfield, Macon, Monroe