For the last week of September and first week of October, we rode 2531 miles (4050 km) for our Fall motorcycle trip in Eastern Oregon, South Western Idaho and a bit of Northern Nevada. Incredible roads, incredible sites. And, yet, I don’t think we were ever more than 725 miles from where we live.
Stefan and I remain mystified as to why motorcycle travelers stick to the Pacific coast for most or all of their time out here – we’ve lived here since 2009 and Eastern Oregon never ceases to amaze us: amazing things to see, amazing roads to ride. Oh, what those travelers are missing.
Sites we visited on this trip included:
- Lava Flow Campground, on the east side of Davis Lake in Deschutes National Forest in Oregon, a bit more than 90 miles outside of Eugene. Remote, beautiful, amazing stars and, yes, a big lava flow.
- The beautiful, remote Mud Creek campground, about 35 minutes northeast of Lakeview, Oregon. Also very remote, beautiful, and amazing stars.
- Historic Shirk Ranch, a “ghost ranch” in Eastern Oregon.
- Willow Creek natural hot springs in South Eastern Oregon.
- Pillars of Rome, and the grave of Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, in the remote reaches of Eastern Oregon.
- The magnificent, imposing Leslie Gulch, north of Jordan Valley, Oregon (INCREDIBLE!!!).
- The remote and legendary Jarbidge, Nevada.
- The Ruby Mountains, known as the “Swiss Alps of Nevada,” a glacier-carved paradise that, in the fall, glow in amazing shades of gold and green from the trees and white from the rocks. Yet another site that shows how Nevada is SUCH an under-rated motorcycle and camping destination.
- Bruneu State Park and Three Island Crossing State Park, both in Idaho, both featuring jaw-dropping landscapes and the latter featuring excellent hiking and THE best museum related to the Oregon Trail (because it also talks at length about those people already here when those colonizers arrived).
- Grayback Campground just off the gorgeous Highway 21 in Idaho (we didn’t realize that Historic Idaho City is just two miles north of the campground – wish we could have given that a WAY closer look).
- Cougar Mountain Lodge in Smith’s Ferry, Idaho – it’s in the middle of NO WHERE. It’s both a restaurant, hotel, convenience store and a bit of a museum.
- Return ride through Hell’s Canyon and to the Hell’s Canyon Overlook, then camping at the remote, beautiful Hurricane Creek Campground outside of Joseph, one of our very favorite campgrounds, for a VERY chilly night!
- Pendleton, Oregon – a first time visit and, wow, we LOVED it!
- Public libraries in Wells, Nevada library (Wells Mybrary), the Lizard Butte Public Library in Marsing, Idaho, and the public library in Enterprise, Oregon (housed in the original 104-year-old Carnegie Library building). We stopped at public libraries three times on this trip in order to get reliable access to the Internet for some on-the-road trip planning and weather forecasts – many fast food restaurants and truck stops are now charging for Internet access, plus those places are loud and chaotic. A public library is friendly, calm, air-conditioned, has nice bathrooms, and may even have some information about the area travelers would find particularly valuable. I also like to look at the community events that a public library has posted – you never know when you might get a lead on something fun to do or see.
We skipped Silver City, Idaho because we’ve been there before and skipped Custer, Idaho both because we’ve been there before, it was getting below freezing at night and we were running out of time.
We also missed two things we should NOT have passed up: historic Idaho City (should have had breakfast there and spent some time there taking photos) and the Thousand Springs Visitor Center, the museum at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument – we blew right past it before realizing what it was.
Detailed travelogue with advice for your own adventure in this area coming soon!
In the meantime, you can already see photos from the trip here.
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