Cliff Drive is currently CLOSED to motorized vehicles every day.
CLOSURES: The eastbound lane of Cliff Drive from The Paseo to Indian Mound is open to vehicles Monday-Wednesday; the westbound lane is a dedicated bike and pedestrian lane every day. The entire drive is closed to vehicular traffic from Thursday-Sunday to allow for walkers, runners, and bikers alike to use the scenic byway.
State Scenic Byway
Cliff Drive is located in George E. Kessler Park in historic Northeast Kansas City and is part of the Kansas City, Missouri Park and Boulevard System. Cliff Drive was officially designated as a State Scenic Byway, one of only five at the time in the state of Missouri, on June 2, 2000. The byway extends approximately 4.27 miles from The Paseo and Independence Avenue through Indian Mound on Gladstone Boulevard at Belmont Boulevard.
In order to receive a State Scenic Byway designation, a byway must have one or more of the following intrinsic qualities: recreational, historic, cultural, archeological, scenic and natural.
Three attributes in particular distinguished Cliff Drive as uniquely qualified to receive Scenic Byway designation. These attributes include:
- Cliff Drive is a representative example of a historically significant urban design and planning effort recognized worldwide.
- Cliff Drive was uniquely critical to the evolution and development of Kansas City as a major metropolitan area.
- Cliff Drive preserves natural features unique to this portion of the Missouri River Valley including limestone bluffs, natural vegetation, and wildlife, particularly unusual because it is located immediately adjacent to the city core within a heavily urbanized environment.
These qualities are representative, unique, irreplaceable, and distinctly characteristic to the Kansas City area.
Historical Points of Interest
Kessler Park, The Concourse, North Terrace Lake, The Colonnade, Scarritt Point, The Reservoir, Indian Mound, Prospect Point, The Kansas City Museum, Carl J. DiCapo Fountain, Ronnie DePasco Byway Memorials.
