*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

This road is one of the of lovely twisty bits along the Clearwater River valley. On either side of the river valley are wonderful roads such as this one, on roads that are nearly untraveled compared to what one sees even in the more “remote” areas of the Washington Cascades.

• Road Name: Greer Grade (Weippe, ID)
• Counties: Clearwater, Lewis(ID)
• Length: 25 miles
• Towns: Fraser, Greer, Weippe

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This highway runs along the Snake River south of the Hells Canyon Recreation Area for some 15 miles, after which it heads southeast to Cambridge.

Before the road splits away from the river, you get to experience a few miles of complete twisty bliss south of the Brownlee Dam where the impounded waters of the Brownlee Reservoir force the water up onto the hillsides and thus this road has to follow the hillsides perfectly.

• Road Name: Oregon/Idaho Route 71 (Copperfield, OR-Cambridge, ID)
• Counties: Baker, Washington(ID)
• Length: 40
• Towns: Brownlee (OR), Cambridge (ID), Copperfield (OR)

Download the Streets and Trips file for Oregon/Idaho Route 71 (Copperfield, OR - Cambridge, ID)

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Some maps show that the upper half of Whitebird Grade Road is open. It’s not really, and it looks to be a gated-off gravel road now.

The lower half is a fantastic road, and I give it a two-thumbs up rating as a destination road.

This road has history behind it, as it’s a National Historic Area as it’s the site of the opening battle of the North Idaho Nez Perce War in the mid-1800s. It’s also the only North-South road to traverse Idaho. There’s no other way through this geologic formation, and even this area is so tough that the original grade road had enough curves to form 37 complete circles if pieced together.

Down at the bottom of the grade is the little hamlet of White Bird. I’m sure it’s a sleepy little town of 150 most of the time, but this Father’s Day weekend it was full of people attending the Whitebird Rodeo.

Also, watch the weather here on this grade. I discovered that it can be in the mid to low-60s in Grangeville and be in the lower 80s in WhiteBird. Every time I got to the bottom I was peeling layers off, only to want them on again 2000 feet up at the top of the road 15-20 minutes later.

Just be careful of the road surface on Old Whitebird. The shoulder gravel is the exact same color as the pavement and can slide the back end out real fast.

• Counties: Idaho
• Length: 18 miles
• Towns: Grangeville, White Bird

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It’s short, it’s curvy, it’s smooth, and it’s most definitely sweet. One might even say, that this is the best road in the Northwest.

To the uninitiated, Spiral Highway is the old Lewiston grade. This old 2-lane of alignment of US Route 95 heads up the breathtaking 2000 foot tall grade in a very short 8 miles.

While Spiral Highway is very technical and definitely not a good road for a motorcyclist to go take in for their first Sunday ride, the curves are very nice and several of them are such lovely sweepers that they seem to go on forever.

View down the Grade to Lewiston

In the summer, there seems to be frequent Saturday bicycle races up the Grade. During my 2006 visit, the local police rather kindly allowed our grouup to ride up the grade. Obviously, since the road was prepared for the bicycle club, there were no rocks or kibbles in the corner and instead of contending with the possibility of cows in the straights we had to watch out for unattended humans in the road.While the road is terribly short, I cannot give any road that I’ve ever ridden a higher rating. It is absolutely fantastic, and as evidenced by some of the riders I was with, they ride it every chance they get.

View across the crest of the Plateau

The bottom end of the Spiral Highway starts under a mile from the WA-Idaho border on the north side of the Clearwater River on WA193/ID128 also known as Down River Road and Wawawai River Road on the Washington side. The top end links back up with US95, 8 miles and 2000 feet up the hill.

I highly recommend it.

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This road isn’t unpaved, but every other indication I’ve seen mentions how overgrown and poorly maintained this road seems to be. The road is listed as originally being a 30’s era section of US 101 that’s been obsoleted by the new road which takes a more direct but steeper route closer to Cascade Head.

This route is part of the Oregon Coast Bicycle Trail because the lower incline is much easier for our non-motorized brethren, so please be aware of bicyclists when on this road since it’s not quite two lanes wide in all places.

I like linking this road in a nice loop around the backside of US101 that goes over hill near Cascade Head. Doing this loop a few times is a good way to burn a couple hours.

• Road Name: Slab Creek Road (Old US 101)
• Counties: Lincoln(OR), Tillamook
• Length: 10
• Towns: Emma, Marx, Neskowin, Otis, Otis Junction

Streets and Trips file for Slab Creek Road / Old Scenic US 101

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