- Distance: 158.0 Miles (254.28 km)
- Rating: 2-A, Lots and lots of gently sweeping corners. Good for just about any experience level. Ratings Explained »
- Travel: Either direction for best results
- Start: Grangeville, Idaho
- End: Lolo, Montana
- Fuel: There are a few small stations along the way, but none are the "open 24-hours" kinda joint and they can be far apart.
- Along the Way: Lots and lots of pretty stuff everywhere you look.
- Highlights: We love the remoteness of the area. The highway and the occasional fishing lodge are the only signs of civilization for most of the eastern half.
- Advisories: Remoteness. Be ready for the unexpected as there is not a whole lot of civilization between Kooskia and Lolo Hot Springs.
Summary
Highway 12 is one of our favorite roads in Idaho and is home of the famous "Winding Road Next 77 Miles", but we've extended it to almost 160 miles. That's over three hours of solid canyoning on one of the most enjoyable roads we've ever had the pleasure to ride.
Every corner is a stunningly fast, predictable sweeper. The road is abundantly wide, every apex is consistent and in 2002 and in 2007, the asphalt appeared to be brand new. We ran it west to east both times, but either direction would be equally enjoyable.
This is not a technical road or challenging road by any stretch of the word, but its a gleeful cornering session where you won't spend much time using the center of your tire. However, we feel that the best part about this road is not the great riding but the fantastic scenery that accompanies good riding.
The road follows the meanderings of a lazy river that cut's its way through the mountains on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Towering pine tree's, swaying grasses and craggy, rocky peaks will be your constant companions as you wander your way along. As such, we think this road is best suited to a pleasant sedentary, strolling pace instead of high-speed strafing.
Do you have a better photograph of this Road?
If you do, email us your photograph and if we use it, you could win the Ultimate Collectors Edition of Faster, Faster and Faster and The Doctor, the Tornado and The Kentucky Kid a $40 value that has the Directors Cut of all three movies, remastered in 5.1 digital surround sound! More than seven hours of content!
Email photos to contest at canyonchasers.net with the name of the road in the subject line. (Or just click on that link and we'll fill in the subject line for you.)
Rate This Road
Have you ridden this road? How would you rate it? With one star meaning you thought this was a super-lame road with very little value, to five stars meaning that you felt like this was the mother of all roads - a road by which other roads should be judged.
Return to the Treasure Maps Main Page »
Ratings Explained
The CanyonChasers road rating is two parts. The first part, numbers 1 through 5, describe how technical the road is, with number 1 being a gently sweeping road and number five being very technical with challenging corners. The second part of the rating is a letter, A, B, C, D and F. The letter describes the quality of the road surface with A being perfect, pristine smooth and F being degraded, bumpy and crumbly. Rolling joints, tar-stips or "gummy worms" will drop the road one letter grade.
This road information is for planning and recreational purposes only. You may find that construction projects, traffic, or other events may cause road conditions to differ from the CanyonChasers ratings. Ratings may not be applicable to all riders, all bikes and all skill levels.