*Motorcycle Roads NorthWest

When one is asked to envision a place with jaw-dropping scenery and fantastic twisty roads, the Klickitat River Canyon is generally not the first thing on anybody’s mind. It’s set back in a little nook between the Cascade and the Simcoe Mountain north of Goldendale. The Klickitat has carved an impressive channel down through “The Plateau” as the local call it, and the view is simply incredible.

View down the Klickitat River Canyon:

While sections of the road are a bit mind-numbing in their straight-ness, the canyon corners completely redeem this road. Yes, there’s one spot where you can see in a straight line for 2 miles on the way into Glenwood. But the corners coming down off the plateau into the canyon are like driving down the side of a corrugated cardboard box. Back & forth. Back & forth.

I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that likes this one. Somebody marked their spot in the middle of one corner with a full-circle burnout.

View down the Klickitat River Canyon:

If you’re coming up from the end of SR142, don’t give up on it too easily. There’s some straight bit with 90-degree farm corners on the way in. Your patience WILL be rewarded.

And west of Glenwood, you have a pair of nice choices: BZ-Glenwood Highway or Trout Lake-Glenwood Road. Not bad either way.

GPS Exchange Format Track for Glenwood-Goldendale Road

• County: Klickitat
• Length: 24 miles
• Town: Glenwood

Google Map:

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This is another one of those interesting Oregon mountain roads. I thoroughly enjoyed it, not to mention that it beats the living daylights out of taking the interstate and droning through the Blue Mountains. Nobody else seems to be on this road on the weekends, and I’d be willing to bet that it’s busier during the ski season than in the summer since the top was littered with shuttered businesses, closed ski lodges, and rentable cabins when I rolled through in June.

And you might ask, “Why’s it so great if nobody else is up there?” Sweepers. Really hot ones. Plenty of opportunity to take your open-class sport-tourer and see what it will do on a nice quiet mid-day ride.

I found it rather amusing really, since so many of the corners up there were marked with speeds that read 30-35 mph. Not sure why they were marked that way mind you, but I could easily do 50+. And the ones that were marked 45mph? They could be taken at truly righteous velocities that my Wee-Strom with its saddle-bags was just not going to attain that day.

Local Landmark:

One thing that every discussion of this area seems to contain is the weather. Even when the sky is clear blue down in the valleys, it always seems to be cloupy up on 204. The day I was down there had turned into a real barn-burner in the Pendleton and Baker valleys but it was only in the upper 60s atop Route 204 and the sun was peaking through patchy clouds that seemed close enough to touch.

• Counties: Union, Union
• Length: 42 miles
• Towns: Elgin, Tollgate, Weston

Google Map for Oregon State Route 204:

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Wikipedia has an excellent description of Oregon Route 218.

OR 218 is a fairly short rural highway. Its western terminus is in Wasco County, in the ghost town of Shaniko at U.S. Route 97. The road is very windy and hilly over its entire 43-mile (69 km) length and is a popular destination for motorcyclists. It runs through the small town of Antelope (population 50) and has a junction with OR 293 on the south end of town.

More mountainous terrain follows, and the highway crosses the John Day River into Wheeler County at Clarno. Just east of Clarno is the Clarno Unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Between Clarno and Fossil (the largest town on the route, with a population of about 475), the road has several sharp curves, with a posted speed limit of 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) in several places. The eastern terminus is in Fossil at the junction of Washington Street and Seventh Street (OR 19).

This indeed does cover the bases. The raw facts if you will. It doesn’t even begin to cover the sheer exhilaration of roaring out of the tight corners with your knees skimming the pavement after having endured what’s most likely 50+ miles of WIDE US 97 sweepers with that obnoxious 50mph speed limit.

The views are simply astounding and the highway is just completely freaking empty.

View from the edge of the plateau looking down past the hairpins.

Now, I’ll freely admit that the road lulls you into a brief sense of complacency with a ho-hum straight SE out of Shaniko to the edge of the Cascade Highlands. It doesn’t last long though before it pretty much chucks you off the side of the ridge right down into a pair of 15mph hairpins and through a slot canyon into Antelope.

Running off the east side of that plateau takes you down into Antelope. If you’ve hit the day-of-the-week lottery (Wednesday through Sunday), you’ll be able to get regular fuel in Antelope. If not, you can even get a bottle of Gatorade in that town.

Clarno Palisades

View of the Valley from the Clarno Palisades

Route 218 was also the first place where I encountered the Central Oregon habit of marking and entire set of as many as 8 curves with 1 single sign marked with the speed of the slowest and tightest of the bunch. More than a little harrows when the first five corners are 45 right angles and for #6 you are confronted with a super tight hairpin with gravel in the apex. Might need an clothes iron at the end of the day to get those puckers out of the seat fabric.

And while for the most part the corners do open up into regular mid-speed sweepers East of Antelope (just 1 more hairpin set East of Clarno), it’s not like it’s the end of the fun. Those curves stay entertaining all the way until you’re a just a few tenths of a mile outside of Fossil. It beats the everliving daylights out of droning down US97 after all.

One interesting oddity about this part of Oregon is the number of old stagecoach stops and farming hamlets that used to have a few homes or houses and have all been abandoned. Some of these have reported as ‘ghost towns’ by various websites, but it seems rather amusing to me to roll by old farmhouses that are specifically listed as part of a ‘ghost town’ and see satellite mini-dishes bolt onto the side of a 100-year-old supposedly abandoned hamlet.

A few other pointers:

• I haven’t been there, but I’ve heard good reviews of Big Timber Restaurant in Fossil
• Shaniko and Antelope have lots of abandoned commercial buildings to wander around and look at if you need to stretch your legs or are waiting for someone to come bring you premium fuel.
• There’s tons of deer in Antelope and around Fossil.
• Slow down when crossing the John Day River. There’s a nice old girder bridge spanning the river there by Clarno.

Barn near Fossil off Route 218

Slot Canyon and Corners

• Counties: Wheeler, Wasco
• Length: 42 miles
• Towns: Shaniko, Antelope, Clarno, Fossil

Google Map for Oregon State Route 218:

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This road starts on the south edge of Ukiah and gently wends it way uphill into the heart of the Blue Mountains. Once you’re about 15 minutes in, you’ll start to see signs for various OHV riding and snowmobile areas, and shortly afterwards the road starts to get interesting with much tighter and more frequent S-curves.

Keep following FS52 up into the mountains past a number of USFS trailheads and you’ll come across and intersection of FS51 near the headwaters of the John Day North Fork. You’ll want this road if you’re heading back up to the north. Otherwise continue on south to FS73 which will take you east into Sumpter and eventually down to Oregon Route 7.

I recommend double-checking road conditions before you head out on this road. It’s very high up with a 5600′ / 1700m crest at FS51 and snow starts early and stays late at those elavations. There’s a Forest Service station right there on the west end of Ukiah and they were right helpful last time I was there.

I don’t have a lot in the way of photos of the area. It was rather pretty there and the horizon views were nice, but not jaw-droppingly gorgeous. If you do get a chance to stop at the bottom end of 52, look out to the West and you can see across the plateaus for at least 50 miles or so.

• Counties: Umatilla, Grant
• Length: 39 miles
• Town: Ukiah

Google Maps for Umatilla FS 52:

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Back in 2007, I wrote the following and I think that it bears some further discussion:

Long known by its name, the newly minted Oregon State Route 402, is considered by some Portland sport-riders to be a destination road in its own right.

It’s a mere 35 miles long and links the towns of Kimberly and Monument and the hamlet of Hamilton with US 395 on the east end and Oregon SR19 (aka John Day Hwy) on the other.

This road is reputed as the sport-bikers dream shortcut due to its low traffic volume and excellent curves. I’m sure it is enjoyable, although I’d hate to have to decide between the southwest route of the wondrous southern leg of SR19 and heavily-patrolled US26 and the northeastern route of SR402/Kimberly-Long Creek and the also-heavily-patrolled US Route 395.

Perhaps I’m a different caliber of rider than I used to be, but Oregon Route 402 isn’t necessarily the walking-talking be-all end-all that I’d been told it was.

A nice twisty bit west of Monument. Lot of this on the west end, but a lot of straight stuff on the east end.

It’s a good road and better by degrees than Route 26, but it’s not an unbroken string of twisties for 40 miles like Route 207 between Service Creek and Mitchell or Route 74 between Vinson and Heppner. There are some very good twisty sections ascending the grade out of Kimberly and again at Schoolhouse Hill, but most of the rest is sweepers.

Irrigated valley just east of Kimberly:

Specifically, my notes for Route 402 illustrate that on the end near Long Creek the road is mostly long straights across the high prairie around 4000′. Most of the sweepers in the middle section were intermediates in the 45mph range for a Wee-Strom and the east end were limited only by ones motorcycle and aversion to being arrested.

There’s a new bridge under contruction that should be complete late summer 2009. That will greatly improve safety crossing the river at Monument.

Interesting geologic formation alonside the road. There’s a small marker near the road explaining that it’s a thousand-plus year old landslide creeping down the hill in chunks.

Please note that there’s not much left in the way of services in Long Creek. The gas station has shut down and there’s a small motel just off US 395 as you roll into ‘town’. The nearest gas is down on US26 or up in Dale. The one in Dale is only open certain days of the week and the weekends.

• County: Grant County, Oregon
• Length: 34.88 miles (per ODOT)
• Towns: Kimberly, Monument, Hamilton, Long Creek

Microsoft S&T file for Oregon State Route 402 ‘Kimberly-Long Creek Highway’

Overview Map:

Google Map:

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