Solar Eclipse Aug 21, 2017 (Salem, Bend, Newport: stadium, parking, deal)

[eileenkeeney]

Eclipse Road trip tips (list from KGW.com)

Eclipse road trip tips

Don’t wear eclipse glasses while driving. If the glasses do what they’re supposed to, you won’t be able to see anything but the sun.

Don’t camp out at rest stops. Rest areas are designated for travelers who are not staying longer than eight hours.

Don’t park your car on the shoulder. If you want to pull off the highway to watch the eclipse, don’t use the shoulder. It may be needed for emergency vehicles to get through. Your car could also start a brush fire.

[BendLocal]

Second night of lightning brings many new wildfires - KTVZ

[Jiff]

Coming from Lynnwood WA. Yesterday I got the last room at Budget Inn in The Dalles for Saturday the 19th for $119 plus tax. The only other rooms in town were $256 and up. Taking either 97 or 197 90 miles to the Madras airport for a 20' x 20' camp site Sunday morning. Hoping those route aren't clogged. Not sure which would be better. I noticed that a lot of camping and RV alternatives in Madras require booking multi days, so hopefully many people will arrive by Saturday.

The airport has bands and beer garden in their hangar. Might opt for the bigger Solarfest ($30) at the county fairgrounds by way of shuttles if things are looking hassle free. It starts on Friday. The music/eclipse festival at Big Summit Prairie near Prineville looks to be huge with seven stages. It starts on Wednesday, so hopefully most will be there well before Sunday.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Jiff

Coming from Lynnwood WA. Yesterday I got the last room at Budget Inn in The Dalles for Saturday the 19th for $119 plus tax. The only other rooms in town were $256 and up. Taking either 97 or 197 90 miles to the Madras airport for a 20' x 20' camp site Sunday morning. Hoping those route aren't clogged. Not sure which would be better. I noticed that a lot of camping and RV alternatives in Madras require booking multi days, so hopefully many people will arrive by Saturday.

The airport has bands and beer garden in their hangar. Might opt for the bigger Solarfest ($30) at the county fairgrounds by way of shuttles if things are looking hassle free. It starts on Friday. The music/eclipse festival at Big Summit Prairie near Prineville looks to be huge with seven stages. It starts on Wednesday, so hopefully most will be there well before Sunday.

It sounds like you have a good plan. Just take 197 straight down, unless there is some good reason to take the longer route. One thing you should consider. Those are eclipse parties. If a party is what you are looking for, great. But if you want a more serene experience to enjoy eclipse, you might want to get away from those events. Unless you want to hear drunk people hooting and hollering non stop for five minutes during the eclipse. And if that is what you are looking for, you can get that experience at pretty much any concert.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Travel forecast for solar eclipse: Hellish traffic ahead

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - Transportation officials in Oregon and Washington have a message for the region's drivers: However bad you think traffic is going to be during next week's total solar eclipse, it's probably going to be worse than you imagine.

While just a 60-to-70 mile (97-to-113 kilometer) wide swath of central Oregon is within the path of totality next Monday, Washington and Oregon officials say that significant backups are expected throughout both states both before and after the short event ends, with potentially hundreds of thousands of people clogging the roadways as they try to drive home or head to airports.

"This is the biggest transportation event that has ever hit Oregon," said Dave Thompson, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Transportation.

The eclipse is the first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in the United States since 1918, and the first to hit any section of the U.S. mainland since 1979. In Oregon about a million people are expected to cluster in various areas in the central part of the state to watch the event. The moon first starts to cross the sun in Oregon shortly after 9 a.m. PDT, and totality - when the moon completely eclipses the sun - begins near Lincoln City, Oregon, at 10:15 a.m. PDT and lasts just under two minutes.

Travel forecast for solar eclipse: Hellish traffic ahead

[Larry Caldwell]

From Hillboro I would prefer back roads. It took me over an hour to get out of Beaverton on 26 one Friday, and there were no accidents or anything, it was just normal traffic. My preferred route would probably be 219 over Chehalem Mountain into Newberg, across the Willamette there and head south on 219 to St. Paul, then take River Road south to Willamette Mission State Park. If Matheny Rd down the the Wheatland Ferry is jammed, there are lots of little section roads that will take you across the freeway (no freeway access so you don't compete with the tourists) like Wakonda or Concomly, then head south again on Howell Prairie Rd. Howell Prairie Vineyard should be smack in the path of totality. You might give them a call and see if they have anything planned. There are also some rural schools out there, like Cascade School (larger) and Cloverdale School (smaller) that should have an empty parking lot and maybe a patch of grass to stretch out on.

[NightBazaar]

From what I'm seeing in the forecasts, we should have a clear sky in the Mid-Willamette Valley for the eclipse. Today, there was no haze from the smoke of forest fires. Let's hope everything continues to hold up for a good view.

[Cloudy Dayz]

On Wednesday I drove on Highway 22 from Salem to US-20 looking for a good eclipse viewing location. The first thing I noticed when I left Salem was a massive pillar of smoke about 20 miles ahead. That had me worried, but it must have been some type of a controlled burn. Maybe a back fire or something. Because while I was driving the smoke just disappeared in about 15 minutes. As I got closer to Mt. Jefferson I could see a small amount of smoke up near the summit. But nothing much really. The sky was very clear, with just a very slight haze.

I saw lots of road signs warning about fire activities and smoke, but I didn't see anything happening except manned roadblocks on the side roads. So the forest roads around Mt. Jefferson will probably continue to be closed for the near future.

Traffic was not too heavy. I stopped to rest at a camp site. I noticed that they had a big sign that all the spaces for this week end were reserved. But while I was there there were not many people. It looked like there were only about three spaces occupied. So I don't think many people are arriving early.

When I got back to Eugene I got a better view of the smoke rising from Mt. Jefferson. It looks like the smoke was drifting southeast towards Bend. If the current conditions hold, the Willamette Valley should be a good viewing location.

[Thom52]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

On Wednesday .........

When I got back to Eugene I got a better view of the smoke rising from Mt. Jefferson. It looks like the smoke was drifting southeast towards Bend. If the current conditions hold, the Willamette Valley should be a good viewing location.

yes it was. Wind shifted on Wednesday bringing the smoke back to Bend. It did make for a nice sunset...
sunset1110024smokeStack by Thom I, on Flickr

The smoke situation can change completely in a couple of hours with any shift in the wind. If you are trying to dodge smoke, you might want to keep an eye on predicted wind direction.

[BendLocal]

For smoke I use this AQI forecast - World air quality forecast: 8 days PM2.5 prediction - Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service NRT

I haven't seen a big increase in traffic around Bend yet but there has been a run on gas.

Long gas lines in C.O., some outages as eclipse approaches - KTVZ

Some gas stations around Central Oregon ran out of fuel as the day went on.

...

Drivers there said they waited in line for about 10 to 30 minutes.