We begin our short but eventful journey on Taney County Route 165 at the interchange with U.S. 65, just north of Hollister and at the western edge of Branson proper. Here the road is cosigned with Missouri Route 248 and branded as the Shepherd of the Hills Expressway, one of Branson’s designated traffic relief routes. Known locally as part of the Red Route, this corridor was laid out to help funnel visitors away from the legendary congestion of 76 Country Music Boulevard. Almost immediately, the drive feels like a bypass, wide and sweeping, built for volume rather than for quiet backroads character. Yet there’s no mistaking the setting—Branson’s hills rise around us, dotted with hotels, theaters, and reminders of the city’s rise as one of Missouri’s most unlikely entertainment capitals.
For just under two miles, we share pavement with MO-248 as the Red Route carries us around the north side of town. This stretch was developed in the 1990s to provide relief during Branson’s tourism boom, when the Strip’s traffic often slowed to a crawl. As we approach the interchange with Gretna Road, the Red Route and MO-248 peel north toward the Ozark hills, and CR-165 continues west on its own as Gretna Road. Here the road feels narrower and closer to the heart of Branson, framed by a mix of big-box stores, restaurants, and billboards vying for travelers’ attention. It’s not glamorous, but it is essential infrastructure for a town that thrives on moving cars between hotels, theaters, and family attractions without completely overwhelming the old highway grid.
At Roark Valley Road, we slip onto another of Branson’s traffic solutions—the Blue Route. Once again, Route 165 takes on a dual identity, this time as the Blue Route for about a mile and a half. This bypass snakes toward the busy Strip, offering alternate access to major venues while keeping drivers just clear enough of the most intense congestion. For visitors, it’s a handy shortcut; for locals, it’s a lifeline that makes living in the middle of a tourist destination bearable. Just as the Strip begins to loom near, the Blue Route ends at the interchange with 76 Country Music Boulevard, the beating heart of Branson’s entertainment empire. Here, Route 165 picks up yet another partner—Missouri 165—and together they carry us a final half mile south.
This last segment, co-signed as both CR-165 and MO-165, leads us past the well-known theaters and attractions of Green Mountain Drive, also marked as Branson’s Yellow Route. Green Mountain is less a bypass than an alternate corridor through the entertainment zone itself, easing some of the gridlock by giving visitors multiple options to reach the same destinations. Our drive concludes here, after just 5.5 miles. Though brief, it serves as a microcosm of Branson’s approach to managing its steady flow of visitors: a network of color-coded routes that turn what might have been an unmanageable bottleneck into a more navigable system. This is not a road for solitude or natural beauty—it is a road built for function, forged in the crucible of Branson’s transformation from a sleepy Ozark town into a national entertainment destination. And in its own way, that story makes this little drive as memorable as any winding highway through the hills.
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