Arizona State Route 74
State highway in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Arizona State Route 74 (SR 74), locally known as the Carefree Highway, is a 30.40-mile (48.92 km) state highway in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States, connects U.S. Route 60 (US 60) northeast of Morristown with Interstate 17 (I-17) in Phoenix. It serves Lake Pleasant Regional Park and serves as a northern bypass around the often-congested stretches of US 60 through the northwest suburbs of the Phoenix metropolitan area.
State Route 74 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carefree Highway | ||||
 SR 74 highlighted in red | ||||
| Route information | ||||
| Maintained by ADOT | ||||
| Length | 30.40 mi[1] (48.92 km) | |||
| Existed | 1964–present | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| West end |  US 60 northeast of Morristown | |||
| East end |  I-17 in Phoenix | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United States | |||
| State | Arizona | |||
| Counties | Maricopa | |||
| Highway system | ||||
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The Carefree Highway is the inspiration for the 1974 Gordon Lightfoot song of the same name.[2]
Route description
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Stretches of the highway are known as the Morristown–New River Highway, Lake Pleasant Highway, and Carefree Highway, the last of which actually extends 12 miles (19 km) past I-17 to Tom Darlington Drive in Carefree. This stretch of Carefree Highway is sometimes numbered as SR 74 on maps, but is not actually part of the state highway system.
This route offers good views of undeveloped desert landscapes, especially of large saguaro and other desert plants. It is frequently used as an alternate route to US 60 (Grand Avenue) between Phoenix and Wickenburg for motorists traveling to and from Las Vegas, Nevada, with fewer traffic signals than using US 60 directly.
History
From 1927 to 1931, SR 74 was assigned from Wickenburg west to Ehrenberg; this stretch of highway was renumbered as part of U.S. Route 60 (US 60).[3][4] On December 15, 1961, SR 74 was assigned to a new planned alignment, to be built from New River southwest to Morristown.[5] The leg east of Lake Pleasant Regional Park was originally planned to angle northeast away from its current alignment towards New River.[6] But by 1974, the highway heading eastbound abruptly ended southeast of Lake Pleasant, at Lake Pleasant Road and the Carefree Highway; that same year, Carefree Highway between SR 74 and I-17 was designated SR 74T (Temporary 74).[7] On October 18, 1989, the "Temporary" banner was officially removed from the Carefree Highway leg.[8]
Future
The passage of a sales tax extension by voters in Maricopa County in both 2004 and 2025 provided significant funding for highway improvements throughout the region. The Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) will use a portion of that funding to acquire right-of-way along SR 74 for future improvements, but has no plans to upgrade the highway to a controlled access freeway.[9]
ADOT is also in the planning stages for a bypass around Wickenburg. This bypass would effectively continue SR 74 beyond its current western terminus with US 60 to connect to the planned alignment of future I-11.[10] Whether this bypass would be marked as SR 74 or not is undetermined. This extension would likely be constructed at/around the same time as I-11.
Major intersections
The entire route is in Maricopa County.
| Location | mi[1] | km | Destinations | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| | 0.00 | 0.00 |  US 60 east (Phoeniz-Wickenburg Hwy) – Phoenix US 60 west (Phoeniz-Wickenburg Hwy) – Wickenburg, Las Vegas (Nevada), Los Angeles (California) | Western terminus; T intersection | |
| Phoenix | 30.40 | 48.92 |  I-17 north (Arizona Veterans Hwy) – Black Canyon City, Prescott, Flagstaff I-17 south (Arizona Veterans Hwy) – I-10 | Eastern terminus; partial cloverleaf interchange I-17 exit 223 | |
| Carefree Highway east – Cave Creek, Carefree, Scottsdale | Continuation east from eastern terminus | ||||
| 1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi | |||||
