Forest Service Road 19 ‘Robert Aufderheide Scenic Byway’

Way up in the heart of the Oregon Cascades is a real gem of a road. If you’re heading down into Central Oregon, this road is a must-ride.

Aufderheide Scenic Byway runs between Oregon Highway 126 and Westfir off Highway 58. The south end of the road isn’t terribly easy to find, but if you can locate the white covered-bridge in Westfir you’re in the right spot.

If you’re riding Aufderheide from the north, you have some of the best reservoir sweepers I’ve ever seen. The pavement is very smooth with few kibbles on this late July weekend. Nearly all of the curves are perfectly-constructed with even radius and neutral camber. The scenery is flat fantastic too, but you’re mostly too busy looking up into the next corner, leaned way over and feeding the throttle.

One of the interesting highlights of Aufderheide is around MP27, a massive stand of 200+ year old trees called Constitution Grove. Many of the trees are named after U.S. Presidents and the spot provides for a nice, safe resting spot at the halfway point of the road.

There are a few pitfalls to concern yourself with on this road.

On the south end there is an intersection that can be quite challenging if approached from the south. The curve itself is a 15-25mph decreasing radius curve, but a non-desired side-road goes straight ahead and tend to cause the rider to fixate on the gravel for a moment and disrupting the flow of the curve.

Another is a hairpin that is situated amongst a couple easy sweepers after very long straights on both sides. This one is really reach out and grab if you’re not watching. This is located around the mid-point of the roadway around MP30 in the Box Canyon Road section. If you have a GPS with a decent level of detail, you will probably be able to see this very noticeable curve when you come up on it.

  • Road Name: Forest Road 19 (’Robert Aufderheide Scenic Byway’)
  • Counties: Lane
  • Length: 58 miles
  • Towns: Westfir, Willamette City

Streets and Trips file for Forest Service Road 19, Aufderheide Scenic Byway

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Twisties, Western Oregon | July 9th, 2007

2 Comments

  1. sarah Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 12:36 pm

    Be careful of Willamette National Forest’s Road 19, also known as Aufderheide Scenic Drive–we were stranded there overnight June 4, 2008, in the snow!!
    They have bulldozed out up to the junction 1958 for a treeplanting project off the spur there, but not farther up–there are tire tracks (through to the asphalt) further up, but no more dozing–Willamette National Forest does NOT have adequate signs–we deterred a couple on hogs just before the drift we were stuck in, and 2 elderly couples–
    the Forest Service pretty much shrugged about the whole thing–
    What we propose is that the reference on maps (AAA, Rand McNally, etc.) be changed from "closed in winter" to "check for road conditions yearround" and get the forest service to put up 2 (two) signs with the phone number of the McKenzie ranger station, before Box Canyon, and 2 (two) signs when coming up from the Highway 58 side–Oakridge and Westfir both have forest stations, even though they’re about 5 miles apart–
    We were lucky–we knew to keep to the main road and did have some water, but the Willamette National Forest rangers need to put up clear warning signs–the regional office in Eugene even tried to pass it off as a problem the state should take up, as the road’s formal name is the "Robert Aufderheide Scenic Drive"…

  2. admin Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

    Actually, most every single forest service road in Washington was still closed in early June. Gotta watch the elevations after a bad winter.

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