Lolo Pass – Bad Roads for RVs is located on U. S. Highway 12 between Lolo Montana and Lewiston Idaho. This road has almost no services. This road is steep for five miles westbound from the pass. Following this, it doesn’t have a straight section for the next seventy-seven miles. This is a paved two-lane highway in mostly in Idaho. In an RV the road should be respected in the summer and avoided in the winter.
There is only one gas station between Lolo Montana and Syringa Idaho. Only one palace that has internet between Lolo and Kooskia Idaho. There are no cell towers between Lolo and Kooskia Idaho. If you want to feel cut off from the rest of the world this is a good place to go. To the north and south, every road departing the highway, for any distance will be dirt, into the forest with no services. To the south, there are no roads.
The only place to get any food or fuel between Lolo and Syringa is at Lochsa Lodge in Powell Idaho. Powell isn’t really a town but rather the location of the lodge. It is located about halfway between the pass and Syringa.
Lolo Pass — Our experience
We traveled U.S Highway 12 westbound in our RV during July. We had perfect weather and although the road was steep and was never straight it was a good summer route. It was very odd to travel nearly one hundred miles on a road that had almost no straight sections.
The climb westbound to Lolo Pass was steep near the summit but flattens out nicely at the top.
The descent westbound from Lolo Pass is speed restricted for trucks at 35 miles per hour. The first five miles are at 6% with some more mild sections. The entire road is one curve after another.
As I mention Syringa, this is a tiny town with almost no services. The first grocery store westbound is in Kooskia Idaho.
Details:
Elevation: 5,233 feet at the top of Lolo Pass
Length: 123 miles
Runaway truck ramps: none
Pull-outs to allow traffic to pass. Multiple in each direction
Hairpin turns, switchbacks: none
Straight sections. First few miles west of Lolo.
Major points westbound from Lolo
All these locations between Lolo and Kooskia are almost one building businesses and can’t be described as towns.
Lolo Hot Springs 27 miles west of Lolo Montana
Lolo Pass Forest Service Visitors center 32 miles from Lolo
Powell, Lochsa Lodge 45 miles from Lolo (only food and fuel)
Syringa, Idaho 117 miles from Lolo (tiny town)
Kooskia Idaho, 132 miles from Lolo (first town)
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Links
Here is our link to our interactive map. Bad Roads for RVs
That sounds absolutely fascinating and beautiful!
Does your new Tiffin have a “jake brake” (engine brake – particularly useful in trucks for down-grade speed control)? I’m new to the Class-A RV scene, but I am looking forward to finding something and hitting the road.
Our RV has a two-stage engine brake. If you combine this with downshifting it nearly crawls along very slowly without the need to apply the wheel brakes.
It even works with the cruise control set to maintain the speed downhill. When it is on however with the transmission in the drive setting (automatic) it eliminates coasting and gradually comes to a stop.
When the grade is “only” five or six percent you don’t have to downshift but the engine brake is mandatory. My only concern is that sometimes it seems to hesitate before it gets with the task.