*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

Route 82 is one of the roads coming out of the Enterprise/Joseph area. The roads begins as a somewhat dull, bucolic highway rolling through a river valley in between some pretty sizeable hills.

Mostly dead-straight sections punctuated by the occasional gentle curve, it will should be a stress to nobody’s riding skills. But once you’re west of Wallowa, the road dives into the wall of hills and you’re quite suddenly into very mountainous country running along the Wallowa River.

Once you leave the side of the river, the grades are quite straight steep but what curves there are on this mountainous stretch of the highway are simply awesome. The curves are marked at 45-50 and for anything sort of a sportscar, they’re probably slower than that.

I got some serious lean on my rear tire in this stretch and I was able to completely round off the squaring that had been caused by the dead-dull drone down the straight section of Oregon Route 3 coming down from Bogan’s Oasis into Enterprise.

• Counties: Union, Wallowa
• Length: 51 miles
• Towns: Enterprise, Wallowa, Elgin, Imbler

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Most of the road that you see below is only marginally a “motorcycle road”. In the summer, it’s hot and straight and not generally much fun throughout its length. Most riders could take it or leave and grudgingly acknowledge that it’s better than slogging up Interstate 5.

But I also said “most of the road”. Right smack in the middle of this highway, straddling the Washington / Oregon border you’ll find an amazing piece of pavement called the Rattlesnake Grade. When you mention this to any rider who’s done this twisty piece of paved paradise, their face will light up with an appropriately beatific smile.

If you’ve ever seen my review of the Spiral Highway, that’s pretty much what you can except to see out on the Rattlesnake Grade. It twists back and forth for miles to traverse the elevation change of the Rattlesnake Grade. The primary difference is that there’s no nearby town for this road. There’s nothing much else to do expect ride this road over and over until you get low on gas and have to slog back in to Joseph, OR (40 miles) or Asotin, WA (25 miles) to fill your tank.

View of Oregon 3 / Washington 129 near the border:

Up near Asotin, you get another great round of sweepers.

Right up on the Snake River is a moderately large community of Asotin. It’s backed by a steep ridge that provides for an excellent set of twisties that climbs 840 feet in under 4 miles. Quite nearly as steep as the Spiral Highway.

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The view from the top is pretty spectacular, but don’t let it distract you from the next corner. The corners are also quite nearly as good as the Spiral Highway.

• Road Name: Washington State Route 129/Oregon Route 3
• Counties: Asotin, Wallowa
• Length: 85
• Towns: Anatone (WA), Appleton (OR), Asotin (WA), Clarkston (WA), Enterprise (OR), Flora (OR)

Download the Streets and Trips file for Washington State Route 129 / Oregon State Route 3

Overview Map:

Google Map:

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This road is a fun little stretch of highway that zips across the Deschutes River Valley (via Tygh Valley) south of Tygh Ridge. The road intersects with US 197 about 7-8 miles north of Maupin’s sweet twisties and heads back to the Deschutes River and its own set of twisties.

There’s fuel and food in Maupin, whose location down in the narrow river valley is really quite interesting. The speed limits are low in town, but that still doesn’t prevent you from scriping pegs on the south side of the valley or leaning over on the sharper curves going up the hill on the north side.

The twisty bits themselves in the Deschutes River Valley are like a mini-Rattlesnake Grade. Just like WA 129/Oregon Route 3, you go down from a ridgetop through an impressive set of twisties and cross a reiver before heading back up the other side.

Deschutes River Valley from atop the East side of the ridge:

Deschutes River just upstream from Sherar’s Bridge:

Photo by Glenn Williams (CC: Attribution)

• Road Name: Oregon Route 216 (Tygh Valley-Buckley)
• Counties: Wasco
• Length: 17
• Towns: Buckley, Fargher, Sherar Grabe, Tygh Valley

Download the Streets and Trips file for Oregon Route 216 (Tygh Valley-Buckley, OR)

Overview Map:

Google Map for Oregon Route 216:

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I did this road in July 2008. While not exactly a stellar summer by even Puget Sounds standards, Northern Idaho seems to have been blessed with much nicer weather. No trace of rain to speak of while I was there, even though Seattle was getting a mid-July drenching.

Halfway through this ride, I dubbed it “The Long Way Around the Lake”. And while this a good description on paper, the whimsical title would completely ignore the somewhat intense reality of this extremely tight and somewhat hazardous roadway.

I have not in my entire life seem so many construction zones, new houses, boat slips, blind corners, and scenic overlooks packed into one place. The road ascends from lake level on either end up to the top of the bluff near Powderhorn Bay. In between these three points, it precariously hugs the side of the ridge with a steep uphill slope on one side and a nasty drop-off on the other in many places.

It’s also very busy as one might expect of such a scenic road in close proximity to Coeur d’ Alene too. The road is rapidly filling up with fancy houses, and in a few years this road will probably have to be pulled from the last no longer being suitable for anything beyond blue-hair riding speeds.

One thing it’s got in spades is scenery.

West across Wolf Lodge Bay:

North across the Lake from atop the bluff at Powderhorn Bay:

No chance of crappy scenery here. No sirree.

The south end of the lake is a little less intense but still moderately curvy. And as long as you don’t get behind a logging truck, you’ll enjoy Idaho 3 down into St. Maries.

• County: Kootenai, Benewah
• Length: 48 miles
• Towns: Beatty, Eddyville, Harrison

Google Map:

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For riders used to the hustle & bustle of Western Washington, Washington’s Route 20 is prone to inducing a bit of mental dissonance. If you departed on your trip from Seattle, you’ve spent the last couple hundred around lots of cars, motorcycles, and RVs. Well, that pretty much seems to end once you’re east of Okanogan.

Once you cross the Columbia at Tonasket, you’re into a whole different time and place. Riding through the canyon floors of these sparsely-forested hillsides, it’s very easy to believe that you might be riding through the early years of the 20th century and not the 21st. Indeed, I kept half expecting to see some miner on a doney or a rancher riding down out of the hills every time I came around a corner.

No, there were no cowboys or gold miners, instead I got deer. All over the place they were.

Most of Route 20 is rangeland, mostly fenced thankfully, but rangeland nonetheless. I would see deer near the road or in adjoining fields every 4-5 miles. On many occasions during this 150+ mile ride, I’d see deer grazing alongside big beef cattle as nonchalantly as if they too were completely domesticated.

Finlay Canyon across to the Methow Valley:

Once you’re east of Tonasket, this road takes on that Old West feeling that I mentioned before. The landscape is brown with a few resinous pine trees along the roadside. I spent the morning out around Wauconda and Republic, all by myself. There streets of Republic were almost deserted. I saw several cars parked along the side of the street, but almost nobody was stirring even at 11am on Sunday.

The only “major” town along the route is Kettle Falls/Colville. You can get all the usual items there and Google reports that there’s a couple motorcycle shops in town. Not surprising really, in that this entire area is a dual-sport paradise. Dirt roads everywhere once you’re off the main highway.

As far as the road itself, well, it’s simply incredible. It’s one of the best stretches of roadway I’ve ever ridden. You can do 30-40 miles of awesome sweepers at a stretch. Then all the sudden you get a few miles of gentler sweepers and cross a river, and you’re back into some of the most incredible touring twisties this side of the California state line.

• Counties: Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille (pron. Pond O’Ray)
• Length: 157 miles
• Towns: Okanogan, Riverside, Tonasket, Wauconda, Republic, Kettle Falls, Colville, Ione

A lovely view of one of the waterfalls along the route: Crystal Falls

Google Maps:

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