McKenzie Pass safe?

[drosen]

I'm looking for a route to Bend next summer to visit my mom. Going over the Santiam seems too dangerous- places without any shoulder, crazy traffic, etc. Is the McKenzie Pass out of Eugene safe? If not, what is a safe way to Bend? Thanks.

DR

[kg/f]

pdx to bend-follow the clackamas river and by staying on nf46 follow the breitenbush river to detroit lakes. take a left on hwy22 to bend.

[SwampDonkey]

I'm not sure if you're talking about the entire ride from Eugene, which I can't speak for, but just after passing McKenzie Bridge (I think) you can get on the old McKenzie Pass, which is beautiful and takes you all the way to Sisters. It has no shoulder either, but it's so twisty and narrow that cars really don't travel all that fast. The route of the Cascade Classic used to include the west face of this road, which made for a great race, and I rode it a few times in training as well when it was open to traffic. No problems. Give it a shot next summer, it's worth it.

Side note, though. They don't plow the road, so it doesn't open until all of the snow has melted. Could be as late as June.

[Bjorn]

One cool thing about the mckenzie pass route is that if you go just before they open it then it will be clear of snow, but there will be no cars. Here is a website that shows when it opened/closed every year. As you can see the opening dates vary by quite a bit.

http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/HWY/REGIO...yClosure.shtml

[tvhwy]

A couple of official car-free days every spring would make for a lovely tradition.

[tvhwy]

It has been a year since I posted in this thread, and I still dream of a car-free opening weekend for us on McKenzie Pass. Does anyone else want to see that happen?