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My tweets here are about travel, motorcycling, tent camping, bicycling (mostly as a commuter), and things I find amusing. I tweet maybe up to half a dozen times a day, on a really good day - usually much less.

Here is the Google Map of the route. Sharing this mainly to help you navigate the gravel from Trask River to Nestucca. 

Get on Highway 6 going west from 26, if you are coming from Portland - though we like to start from Gales Creek. Soon after you come out of Tillamook Forest and the mountains and drop into the valley from the mountains, you will take a left (and there is a left turning lane) on Olsen Road - it's marked with a sign on the right just as you come into the valley for Trask River County Campground. Take Olsen road and after about a mile, make a left onto Trask River Road (there will be a sign for it on the right).

Trask River Road is delightful. It's very curvy, a bit narrow and goes along the river. Unfortunately there are very few places to stop and look at what is truly the best part of the river, that gorgeous blue-green water rushing over big boulders and various falls. If you see a safe shoulder to stop that will give you a place to look at the water, take it.

Eventually you will come to Trask River County Campground. You cannot miss it - it's on BOTH sides of the road. It's a great place to stop for a pee break (at the vault toilets on either side). They also have water spigots. If you decide to stop for lunch, you will be expected to pay the $5 day use fee (which is great for one car full of people, but motorcycles are expected to pay PER MOTORCYCLE and that's cr*p). Walk over and have a look at the river if you have the opportunity and won't disturb any campers.

Continue on Trask River Road and as you pass a luxury camp ground on the right, the pavement ends and you are starting the 14 mile gravel route that will eventually get you to paved Nestucca Road over.

Before I describe the rest of the route, note that, unless the road has been freshly graveled or there have been some serious washouts, the road is relatively easy - I say this as someone who does NOT consider herself great at off-road motorcycle riding. In May 2022, when we rode it for the first time, much of the road was so pounded down that it was like asphalt and I didn't have to stand up. The difficulties of the road:

As I loathe going downhill on gravel, I recommend doing the route from Trask River to Nestucca, NOT the other way around.

There are at least four official, designated primitive campgrounds on this route and a lot more unofficial ones. 

There are NO road markings on the gravel. Zero. So you need to put the route into a GPS or download this Google Map of the route.

You come down to Nestucca Road on Ginger Creek Road - again, none of the gravel roads are marked with signs, I just know this because of Google Maps. Nestucca River Road is now entirely paved.  Once there, you can go to the left to Carlton and back toward Portland, or right to Beaver and to the coast. Or you can make the trip even longer and go left toward Carlton, then make the right for Bald Mountain Road and make the eventua left to Willamina (have lunch at the Wildwood Hotel) or make the right on Bible Creek Road and loop back to Nestucca, and then decide if you are going to the coast or back to Carlton. OR, when you come from Ginger Creek Road, you can go right on Nestucca, then make a left on Bible Creek Road, and do the whole thing I've just said in reverse. Here's more about either of these additional routes.

You could even push yourself even harder and go to Bible Creek Road and then head up Siuslaw National Forest Service Road 14 up the back of Mount Hebo. THAT is not easy, but if I can do it, you probably can too.

 

              

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