Northwest Bronco Roundup August 17th - 20th, 2022

[70 Steed]

The NWBR is August 17th - 20th. That sounds like a long way off. However if you are planning on camping, Honeyman State Park starts taking reservations 6 months from the day of your arrival in advance. That means sometime in February. H loop where all the Broncos stay fills up quick.

If you are thinking about going and camping I would suggest making your reservations as soon as they open up. You can always cancel if your plans change.

Here’s the NWBR website:

https://northwestbroncoroundup.com/

We will be driving once again and staying in a motel. We will leave Grass Valley on August 15th and staying in Fortuna that night. We will arrive in Florence the next day, August 16th. We are staying at the Best Western Pier Point Inn in Florence. We will be leaving Florence Sunday, August 21st, staying in Fortuna that night. We will head home on Monday, August 22nd.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Skip

[CityHick]

As someone who's canceled a spot at Honeyman a couple of times, I'd say jump on and grab a spot early. Refunds were super easy.

This being said, the idea of a hotel is appealing for that event. I wasn't particularly fond of camping at Honeyman - the sites were quite small, though they are nice in that they are somewhat isolated from each other, and the restrooms/showers were not bad. I will book a site and figure out the details later...

Florence is a nice little beach town and I enjoyed the Bronco events and also just doing my own thing in the general area. Would like to get a hike or two in this time around, see more of the surrounding area.

[Lars]

A definite maybe for me. A long haul in my Bronco. Still, tempting. On the other hand I can get to Florence by air in a little over 2 hours as long as I can arrange ground transportation...

[CityHick]

A definite maybe for me. A long haul in my Bronco. Still, tempting. On the other hand I can get to Florence by air in a little over 2 hours as long as I can arrange ground transportation...

When I made this trip in 2018, I quite literally drove directly through the Carr fire over the Siskiyou pass. Meaning, flames were right next to the highway and visibility was absurdly bad. I got to see large tanker planes making fire retardant drops on nearby peaks. A truly wild experience. I have photos of my truck's cabin air filter and engine air filters after that trip, they were quite black. Needless to say, I was extremely happy to be making that drive in my F150 with the Bronco following along happily on a flatbed trailer. I think if I had been in my topless Bronco, I'd have either turned back and headed for home, or I'd have tried to find another route. It was about the worst driving conditions that I've ever encountered.

I should also mention that the drive home, from Redding down to Sacramento or so, was a record setting heatwave with temperatures over 110F. If I make this trip again, I will be towing again. I am not among those who have AC in their Bronco yet...

[70 Steed]

When I made this trip in 2018, I quite literally drove directly through the Carr fire over the Siskiyou pass. Meaning, flames were right next to the highway and visibility was absurdly bad. I got to see large tanker planes making fire retardant drops on nearby peaks. A truly wild experience. I have photos of my truck's cabin air filter and engine air filters after that trip, they were quite black. Needless to say, I was extremely happy to be making that drive in my F150 with the Bronco following along happily on a flatbed trailer. I think if I had been in my topless Bronco, I'd have either turned back and headed for home, or I'd have tried to find another route. It was about the worst driving conditions that I've ever encountered.

I should also mention that the drive home, from Redding down to Sacramento or so, was a record setting heatwave with temperatures over 110F. If I make this trip again, I will be towing again. I am not among those who have AC in their Bronco yet...

We drive our Broncos to Florence. We take Hwy 36 from Red Bluff to Fortuna. Last year 36 was closed off and on in the weeks leading up to our trip due to the McFarland fire. We checked before we left Grass Valley the morning we were leaving and it was open. We got the the Hwy 36 turnoff at I 5 about 12:25 pm and 36 was closed. Turns out it had closed about 20 minutes before we got there. The next best route to the coast is Hwy 299. It was closed due to the Monument fire. The only other option if we wanted to stay in Fortuna was to double back all the way to Hwy 20 and go around Clear Lake. Not an attractive option.

We decided to keep going North on I 5 and stay in southern Oregon. The trip up I 5 was smoky and HOT. As soon as we got into Oregon the air was clear and beautiful. We wound up staying in Ashland. Fortunately the hotel in Fortuna refunded our deposit.

On the way back 36 and 299 were still closed. We wound up taking Hwy 20 from Fortuna back home.

We have driven this route four times and staying in Fortuna splits the trip exactly in half, five hours from Grass Valley to Fortuna and five hours from Fortuna to Florence which in not a bad drive and the scenery is beautiful.

[PhantomEB]

Damn one day one day, bucket list is so long……