I know you didn't ask but thought I would throw it out there just in case... the road around the lake in McCall is not paved all the way. You can make it just out of town, then it's dirt.
Nice little tourist town though.

 

 

I you're going the Stanley-Banks route here's a preview of the scenery. Great riding pretty much the whole way.





BTW if you want a quick sidetrip off Hwy 17, Crouch is a really cool little hamlet we had a great lunch there.

 

Thats a nice ride! I try and get to it every year if I can. Good road, with some potholes on the North end of the FS road before you head west to Joseph. If you are going to stay in Joseph, the Indian Lodge Motel is very good Mom and Pop, and parking right in front of your door. Just up the street is the Cheyenne Cafe, which has one of the best breakfasts anywhere. Tell her Rocky sent you... she wont remember me, but mention you saw it on the Harley Forum, and she might... head south out of town a bit and you can visit Chief Joseph, he is buried there, and there is a great memorial to him..... you don't mention it, but if you can, head to Lewiston, you will go down (a great place to stop for Pie and Coffee at the bottom) and up a great bit of Twisty road and up and over Rattlesnake Pass.... then down another great bit of Twisty road into Lewiston..... IF you get to Lewiston, Find and go up Old 95.... again, twisty road. You can get back to Lewiston on the new grade, or back down the twisty bit..... Ok, so now.... if you want to get back to McCall.... head down 95 and find both the Winchester grade, and just south of Grangville, the Old Whitebird grade... those two bits are some of the twistiest roads you will find anywhere.... and remember, that back in the day, they where Truck routes.

 

Thanks Rocky, all this is getting me even more stoked for this trip. Don't want to rush through this area, planing fewer miles and more stops. We did Glacier NP 6 years ago (the Limited had 50 miles on her when we left, broke in on the road), but gave up Idaho/Oregon for Black Hills on that trip. Don't regret it, but time to go back.

 

This is on the White Bird Grade..... look across the valley and you can see the "new road". The old road is twice as long as the new one, and they start and stop at the same place.



This is on "Old 95" just above Lewiston. It twists like that all the way down.

 

White Bird is freaking awesome!

In Oregon there are still a lot of places that pump your gas for you, but often times on a Harley they will not. That has been my experience anyway. I don't know if it makes a difference to you, but in Idaho you only have to wear a lid if you are under 18, & you can carry concealed with no permit. Most of the surrounding states are helmet required states.

You really can't go wrong with any roads in that area of Idaho. I may be a bit biased though.

 

My wife and I did the Tail of the Dragon, Deals Gap in 2004. We lived in Carson Ciry, NV at the time, which made it a 5K mile round trip. I had the wife riding ahead of me and had my video camera mounted on my handlebar. It's actually 318 twisties in 11 miles. Great ride, and we occasionally bring out the video to enjoy Must admit, we were ready for some straight stretches after that

https://tailofthedragon.com/

 

I'm thinking of planning a solo ride to this area up from Colorado Springs this summer. This thread has been very helpful so far and given me some good ideas!

Back in 2013 a buddy and I made the trek to the east coast and the Tail of the Dragon was certainly a part of it. We enjoyed it for sure - but while we were there, a fellow rider we were chatting with told us about Hells Canyon and Highway 39. Pretty much said the same thing you did... and practically insisted we should make plans to check it out some day.

Since then, it's been on the bucket list of areas to ride.

 

On the ride in '13, we rode from Missoula to Lost Trail Pass, then east on 43 to Wisdom and Butte. I really wanted to keep going south, but we had an itinerary.

Wife made a joke that this picture was proof we had ridden Idaho. That's where we came up with the rule: if there was no sleep, food or sex, the state didn't count. Idaho will count this time.