Date Reviewed: 05/2006

Length: 95 miles

Technical Difficulty: Easy to moderate because of some challenging mountain pass corners.

Location: Road review begins at junction of U.S. Hwy 20 and U.S. Hwy 395 in Mt Vernon (N44° 25' 3" and W119° 6' 48") and ends at Nye Junction at the junction of Hwy 395 and County Rd 74 (N45° 27' 36" and W118° 58' 46")

Connects With: Hwy 74 - Nye Junction to Heppner and Hwy 395 - Burns to John Day

Amenities: Gas, food and lodging at Mount Vernon and Ukiah.

Places of Interest: John Day River, Ukiah.

Review: The section of Hwy 395 between Mt Vernon and Nye Junction is a virtual roller coaster ride. While the general topography of this section is a lot like the section between Burns and John Day, this part climbs and descends no fewer than five summits in its 95 mile length. That adds up to one heck of a lot of corners! Also like the southern portion of 395, the pavement is near perfection and the mountain passes provide a lot of great riding. The summits are separated by valleys of sagebrush and juniper. This is an extremely rural part of Oregon and the road can be treacherous in bad weather or at night.

Leaving Hwy 26 at Mt Vernon, it doesn't take long to begin the climb up to Beech Creek Summit at 4,687 ft. in the Umatilla National Forest. The smooth pavement starts off with gentle sweepers and gets increasingly tight and exciting the closer to the top you get. The summit then opens up to a georgeous valley and meadows. You travel about four miles through the valley that includes the tiny communities of Beech Creek and Fox, before another mountain pass climb.

Climbing out of the valley is about a three mile, very quick ascent and scramble to the top of Long Creek Summit at 5,075 ft.The descent is about five miles of more great corners until leaving the thick forest into Long Creek Valley, reminiscent of the Lake Tahoe area in the Sierras of California. Very nice!

After leaving this valley the road really gets interesting with about four miles of some of the best corners on the route and a few very tight switchbacks. This time you're climbing the Ritter Butte Summit that tops out at 3,993 ft. There's not much of a downslope after Ritter Butte before another climb, this time up Meadowbrook Summit, to an elevation of 4,137 ft through absolutely fantastic 40 to 45 mph curves. The Ponderosa pine forest through here is very beautiful and the descent is a dazzling ride down the north slope of the pass through adrenaline-pumping 30 to 45 mph twisties of perfect pavement and banked turns.

At about Dale (it's actually just a ranch in a very fertile, small valley) the road levels and straightens out for a ways and joins up with the incredibly beautiful North Fork John Day River. This area, the Ukiah-Dale Forest State Scenic Corridor, is a perfect place to stop, take a break and reflect on the road just traveled. You might think that it just couldn't get much better than this until you hop back on your bike to continue the ride. You soon leave the banks of The John Day River and turn north again. Rather suddenly, you're thrust into another wonderful section of perfect highway engineering along Camas Creek constantly pushing the handlebars through 30 to 40 mph curves almost all the way to Ukiah.

From the top of Meadowbrook Pass to Ukiah has been about 25 miles of nearly constant cornering as you traverse down the mountain to the valley. What a rush! Ukiah (hmm!) sits down in a valley of prairie land on the route of the Blue Mountain Scenic Byway. From Ukiah heading north, south, east or west would be a good choice for incredible riding. We're going north this time.

I didn't expect too much out of Hwy 395 north of Ukiah. Boy was I surprised! After a slow, routine sagebrush start, the road definitely took a turn for the better when entering the Battle Mountain Forest Scenic Corridor. The road over Battle Mountain Pass (elev. 4,270 ft.) absolutely rocks! Great pavement (again), great corners (see second to last picture below) and beautiful scenery combine to make this last pass on this route the best of the day.

After descending Battle Mountain, the road finally gets predictable as it meanders over the high prairie ridges and valleys. There's nary a tree in sight. This land seems completely abandoned. What good is it? It must be of some value to somebody since it is all fenced. Are the fences keeping something in or keeping someone out. I don't care. I'm still ecstatic from the day's ride on the roller coaster. I didn't know what to expect before beginning this route. I do now and I'm looking forward to doing it again. Highly rewarding and highly recommended!

Rider Comments

"We rode 3400 miles in six days through California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Canada, Washington and Oregon, and this stretch of road was the highlight. No people, amazing quality of road, beautiful scenery. It was as if a motorcyclist designed and built it just for fun!" - Ken Van Vliet, Turlock, California

"This road rocks! The best part is the wonderfully banked turns north of Battle Mountain summit - complete Nirvana!" - Jim Fontana, Renton, Washington

"Very nice ride. Very low traffic volume. This is a must ride." - Perter C., Monterey, California

"During a 5-day tour that included Oregon, Idaho, Montana and S.W. Washington, a friend and I took in 395 between Ukiah and Mt. Vernon. What a fantastic ribbon of asphalt this is; I especially enjoyed the apparently made-for-motorcycles section near Dale/Meadowbrook. Such picturesque countryside plus remarkably encouraging blacktop. This section is my personal favorite from a 1900-mile tour that included plenty of utterly fantastic roads." - Dave H., Creswell, Oregon