Cow Creek Road in Oregon

[Makuna]

Sorry, no pictures.

I was in Southern Oregon last week visiting family, and took a few days afterwards to take some scenic backroads I have never been on.

One was Cow Creek Road. Its not a long road and starts and ends basically on I-5. But it the complete trip I seen two logging trucks, and one RV. The trucks were well behaved (I grew up in Souther Oregon and those trucks sometimes on desolte roads will use the whole road as their lane, didn't see that here). The temps in Oregon (not the coast) were in 100s but due to the hills and creek (more like a river) the temps along the road where in the 80s. There are historic stops (signs) along the way with great views of the creek, railroad bridges. The road of course has lots of corners and most are very motorcycle friendly (a few in the south part change radius mid corner so beware). The roads were are also in very good shape with no gravel. Lots of fun to ride.

 

[Fontanaman]

This is a road I want to ride some day. I couple of years ago I found a trip report on Oregonmotorcyclist.com

 

[ShinyPartsUp]

One of my favorites. A few years back ran that road on the FJR and came around the bend to see a bear cub sitting in the road calling for mama. Watch out for wildlife. Another time I took GalaxyBlue (Adam) from this forum on a ride along the road. Also there is a spot for public access for gold panning, which was fun. The Cow Creek is very important to the area. The local Native Americans are the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Indians. A couple pics:

The start of the ride after a long straight stretch by a lumber mill:

A map and turnout area:

The namesake Cow Creek:

Along the way a railroad follows the creek as well. A 120 year old bridge built by Chinese laborers. Still being used and rock solid. It replaced a previous line wiped out by a landslide. Said to have killed dozens of Chinese, but nobody knows how many because nobody cared.

There are logging roads that go up and over Grayback Mountain, but you end up back where you started (at least I did), but fun.

My appologies to the OP if I took over the thread, but I agree it is a little gem.

 

[blufjr]

One of my favorites. A few years back ran that road on the FJR and came around the bend to see a bear cub sitting in the road calling for mama. Watch out for wildlife. Another time I took GalaxyBlue (Adam) from this forum on a ride along the road. Also there is a spot for public access for gold panning, which was fun. The Cow Creek is very important to the area. The local Native Americans are the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Indians. A couple pics:

There are logging roads that go up and over Grayback Mountain, but you end up back where you started (at least I did), but fun.

My appologies to the OP if I took over the thread, but I agree it is a little gem.

Shiny,

Thanks for the heads up.