*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

This is a truly fantastic road.

On one end of the road, you have a fairly well-maintained US Highway (US Route 12), and on the other you have one of the Snake River’s more fascinating civil engineering projects, the Lower Granite Dam.

The Kirby-Mayview Road departs US 12 at an acutely-angled intersection a few miles east of Pomeroy. If you’re coming in from Pomeroy, it’s very easy to see and just takes a quick head-check to the east for oncoming traffic and it’s into Sweeper Heaven.

The pavement is not exactly track-quality, but it’s not beat-up either. The curves are highly entertaining on this road, and there isn’t all that much traffic to worry about in this sparsely-settled area.

If you’re riding this road, you’ll need to be aware of the situations with the dam security in the post-9/11 era. Transiting can only be done during certain hours of the day and certain days of the week. I recommend checking with the Army Corps of Engineers to determine when you can get across the dam towards Pullman and Colfax.

If you get up towards the River on Lower Deadman, you’ll come down off the plateau on a windy, swoopy bit of fun. The road is very nice there, but you do need to be careful as you’re more likely to be seen by other motorists there and also by the authorities that manage the Lower Granite Dam.

I must saw, I really enjoyed this road. I was “on tour” with a couple other riders with ample experience on very capable machines, and it a real hoot to carve through these corners with riders who know this road well.

Regarding services, Pomeroy is listed as having a supermarket, a coffeehouse, a pharmacy, and perhaps a bank. It may also still have a gas station, but confidence is somewhat low on whether it’s an actual gas station or just a distribution center.

• County: Garfield
• Length: 29 miles
• Towns: Illia, Kirby, Mayview

Streets and Trips file for Kirby-Mayview Road / Lower Deadman Road