The businesses and communities along the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway welcome participants in the Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally this weekend. Thousands of motorcyclists are expected to gather in Baker City and spend the next few days exploring byway country and beyond. There are lots of events and opportunities to view the amazing bikes at Baker City. Go to www.hellscanyonrally.com for more information.

Via this byway website, we are often asked for byway travel tips. Below is my response to a recent request for RV parks along the byway:

As you may have seen on maps, the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway is a loop that intersects Interstate 84 at Baker City and La Grande. From those two communities, it circles around the magnificent Wallowa Mountains. There are two nice RV Parks in Baker City. Mountain View RV, www.mtviewrv.com, is set back about 1/2 mile from the freeway, and Oregon Trails West RV Park is located at Exit 302. At and near La Grande, there is Eagles Hot Lake RV, with a nice country setting, www.eagleshotlakerv.com, and La Grande Rendezvous RV, right off the freeway in La Grande, www.lagranderendezvousrvresort.com. In Elgin, 20 miles north of La Grande on OR Hwy. 82 (the byway itself and also called Wallowa Lake Highway), HuNaHa RV is owned by the city and has a nice setting right on the Grande Ronde River, http://www.cityofelginor.org/Hu-Na-HaRVPark.php. There is an RV park in the town of Wallowa, and in Enterprise, Joseph, Halfway and at Wallowa Lake. My favorites would be Wallowa Lake State Park, http://www.oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=20, and Park at the River, www.parkattheriver.com, both at the South end of Wallowa Lake and just beautiful. You can find more about most of these and others in the area on www.goodsamcamping.com, then search under the zip codes 97814, 97850 and 97828. I recommend reservations for any of the RV parks during the summer season.

The byway covers over 200 miles and the landscape is very diverse with quite a variation in elevation, going from sage covered hills east of Baker City to high valleys surrounded by mountain peaks at Halfway, Joseph and Enterprise, to the forested mountain pass that links Halfway with Joseph, and the Minam Grade that connects the Wallowa Valley with Elgin. It then drops into the lush farm land of the Grande Ronde Valley at La Grande.

I hope all of my links work for you. There are also lots of Wallowa Whitman National Forest campgrounds,  and other, smaller RV parks throughout the byway. If you haven’t been to the websites below for further information on our area, including other types of lodging facilities, you might want to check them out. The byway goes through three counties, each with their own chamber of commerce, and the regional tourism website is a great resource. Enjoy your visit. I don’t know how much time you have to explore the area, but you are likely to want to come back for a longer stay, and we hope you can. Please let me know if you have further questions.

www.visitbaker.com

www.wallowacountychamber.com

www.unioncountychamber.org

http://www.basecampbaker.com/baker-county-oregon-rv-parks.html

www.visiteasternoregon.com and then select Northeast Oregon

Janet, Hells Canyon Scenic Byway

Photos by Timothy Bishop

“We’ve promoted Hells Canyon All-American Road as a motorcycle-friendly destination before. But over the past two years, our message has really focused on inviting two-wheel riders to visit Hells Canyon, which is one of the Top 10 Scenic Drives of the Northern Rockies (www.drivethetop10.com),” said Alice Trindle from the Eastern Oregon Visitors Association, a regional Destination Marketing Organization for eleven counties east of Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. “It’s exciting to see the increased interest among riders in this incredibly scenic route.”

Developed in conjunction with public awareness initiatives at the America’s Byways Resource Center, the promotion awarded a year of free advertising on the RoadRUNNER website, http://www.roadrunner.travel/. It also included professional digital ad design and upload services.

“We’re pleased to recognize the work of Hells Canyon All-American Road,” said Michelle Johnson, Director at America’s Byways Resource Center. “The byway’s submission showed a strong commitment to reaching out to biking visitors.”

To win the recognition, Hells Canyon All-American Road submitted various materials demonstrating its motorcycle-friendly positioning. For example, a message-specific rack card was distributed to more than 5,000 participants at the Seattle Motorcycle Show in December 2011 and a print advertisement is now running in the American Road Magazine and the Eastern Oregon Visitor Guide. In addition, the byway has created digital ads for Travel Oregon and other online media.

“We saw many marketing examples from America’s Byways that are wisely reaching out to motorcyclists—travelers who truly appreciate the best drives in the nation. We’re excited to share byway information with our readers,” commented Melanie Brown from RoadRUNNER.

For more information about Hells Canyon All-American Road, visit byways.org. To see the new ad online beginning in April 2012, visit RoadRUNNER Motorcycle Touring & Travel.

For more great motorcycling curves in Eastern Oregon, Visit Eastern Oregon.com.