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Pull Over Info:
On Day 2 we attack a couple more of the old HW-95 grades the Winchester grade and the Old Spiral Highway (Lewiston grade). There will be photo opportunities along the way. From Grangeville we will travel along the Clearwater River on the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway to Kooskia. We intersect with HW-12, still named the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway, to Orofino. We will stop at the Dam visitor center. We take the long way on CR-P1, which is very scenic, and we ride from mountain passes to river valleys. Then we reconnect with HW-12 and pickup HW-95 to Winchester making a little loop to Lewiston for the evening.
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Hotel and Route Information:
Orofino Information
Dworshak Dam
The Spiral Highway
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We leave Grangeville for Orofino via State HW-13, which intersects with the Northwest Passage Scenic Byway (HW-12) at Kooskia. While in Orofino we will visit the Dworshak Dam visitor center. The Dworshak Reservoir, found in central Idaho along the North Fork of the Clearwater River, is located in scenic forested and mountainous country. At a height of 717 feet, the dam is the highest straight-axis gravity dam in North America, as well as one of the most dramatic in appearance. The Dworshak National Fish Hatchery is the largest steelhead trout hatchery in the world. Lewis and Clark camped in the area, where they rested from their trip over the Bitterroot Range and built canoes for their trip on to the Pacific Ocean.
Out of Orofino we will take the CR-P1 road to Kendrick, ID then drop back down to HW-12 to pick up HW-95 South to Winchester and experience one more old grade that used to be HW-95.
The Old Winchester Grade is located just outside of Culdesac, Idaho and is a part of the old HW-95. It’s an amazing old road, with emphasis on "Old" and a double word bonus of "Narrow". The road is barely the width of one and a half lanes of a modern roadway, and does not have what one could call a shoulder. The curves are very tight and typical of the old grades. The shoulder gravel is the same color as the roadway as it is paved with local stone. Most of the curves are very tight: most of the outside curves have no guide rail to demarcate the outside edges and the ‘inside corners’ often have oncoming traffic which is usually coming across the inside of your lane. It’s a great road though and the vista is well worth the trip, not only from the top but also from many points along the way up.
A short backtrack on HW-95 and then we will take Webb Road into Lewiston. There we will check into our hotel and for those who have not twisted enough for one day we will head up the Old Spiral Highway (Lewiston Grade) and then back to Lewiston via the new HW-95 where we will enjoy dinner and spend the night.
The Old Spiral Highway is a result of the demand for a better road connecting Idaho from north to south began in the early 1900’s, when automobile traffic made a steep old wagon road obsolete. The inadequate thoroughfare hindered commercial transportation and economic development. In 1914, E.M. Booth, a Nez Perce County engineer, who later became the state highway engineer, surveyed a route up the challenging Lewiston hill. It was C.C. Van Arsdol whose job it was to take this idea and make it a reality. He advanced and oversaw the Lewiston Hill project—resulting in the completion of a new road in 1917. The 2000-foot grade was designed with a series of sharp curves that let cars go 20 or 30 miles an hour—a good speed for that time. It still can be used by anyone not in too much of a hurry who wants to see an engineering model of early highway construction. In July1975 work began on the present grade. It opened in 1979. The cost, including right-of-way, was $22 million. The 1917 road took 64 turns in 2000 feet. It was designed to be a 9.5-mile stretch with a four percent grade. Its initial construction costs were estimated at $50,000. The final construction cost was $100,000—twice the original cost estimate. Even the new road opened in 1979 is a challenge to traverse. |
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