Overall Route Rating
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4.47 out of 5 Rider Rating 4.47
15 Reviews

St. Joe River Scenic Byway

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By MCR Contributor (1039 McR Points) on May 22, 2011

Rider Reviews

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HaraldGS
2 McR Points
June 16, 2019
Rode this road from St Regis to St Maries today…
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aka Big Red
2 McR Points
September 24, 2017
My Wife and I rode this road from St. Regis to St…
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Written Directions

From St. Maries, ID, east along the St. Joe River for 75 miles. At the junction with Road 218, FS 50 heads north (left) and climbs 14 miles over the divide to the Idaho-Montana border. Be aware if coming from the East that the intersection in St Regis can be a bit confusing.Check out a good map. This road is deserted and much like the well know LoLo pass road which parallels it. Same type of road till you hit Avery,nice curvy route along the rivers edge! From Avery on it gets tighter and deserted and the road runs at higher elevations compared to the river, and has much higher drop-offs over the edges and a lot of tighter corners. Fun ride! Makes a great loop with the Lolo route.

Scenery

You will see beautiful Rivers, Mountains,Forest on this wonderful twisting lonely backroad nature tour!

Drive Enjoyment

100 miles of twisties and elevation.Follows the edge of the St Joe River. No traffic,usually deserted. If you can't handle some dust, then be aware there is a few miles of easy hardpack gravel surface on the MT side and you are in St Regis ,MT on I-90. No problem at all for our sportbikes. This is why you won't see many bikes on this route! Too bad more of the great roads didn't have a mile of gravel on each end! :) . Be warned, there is some hard pack gravel at the East end heading down the mtn towards St regis.

Tourism Opportunities

Lots at each end, not much in between. No need for a few hours anyway!
 

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kno
August 30, 2019
45 McR Points
Motorcycle Type : Touring
From Montana border to Avery 47 miles of twisties ..2 sections of that had less then half mile of straights. Foot board scraper Fantastic ride
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IdahoRenegade
August 5, 2019
3 McR Points
Motorcycle Type : Other
This is a fun ride on an ADV bike. You have 2 options from St. Maries to Avery. One side of the river has a nice paved road. The other is an old railroad grade, which is a really fun ride on an ADV (both sides are nice). Calder (mile 24 IIRC) has a good little restaurant. Avery (about mile 48) has food and a couple options for food (one with great Huckleberry ice cream). From Avery to Gold Creek is an absolutely fantastic street/adv road. Nice twisties for about 30 miles, all following the scenic St. Joe. From Gold Creek, I recommend dropping south to the historic Red Ives ranger station. From there you can come out over Heller Creek (ADV only) in Superior. Alternatively, go back N. to Gold Creek, and head east to Superior. There is about 12 miles of somewhat loose gravel this way. Not an issue on an ADV, and very doable on a street bike if you have experience on dirt roads.
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kno
May 3, 2020
45 McR Points
Motorcycle Type : Touring
Once past Avery longest straight section was 3/4 of a mile. Otherwise curves, a few sweepers, mostly scrap the foot pegs.
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