Best route

Can take a long time to get thru Portland 6am to 9ish am and from 2pm to 7pm. There is also 14+ miles of 45mph construction in the Gourge that ends up being a cluster of stop and go to 35mph idocy. On 20 it can take a while to get thru Bend and Sisters, also .. lots of elevation change on that route

 

In other words.... pick your poison

 

It's 25 miles longer to take the interstate into Portland then jump on the I-5 south to Salem. Much easier than the mountain passes and faster. But, you're probably already there so this is moot.

 

This time of year it pays to watch the weather also. If there’s s storm system coming across the Blue’s many time it can be avoided by running out across the desert. And if there’s a system dumping snow on Santiam you can probably avoid that by running the interstate around. Sometimes it’s snowing everywhere and you just have to decide where you’d rather chain up at.

 

84

 

I tend to like the mountain passes, even when running 84 if they threw the chain law up, I always jumped up north and went across tollgate, always more snow, but no idiots and I never had to chain.

 

Considering that oregon shuts down.

A LOT.

 

We usually use 84.

In our time it was a favorite passage one of them anyhow.

However we are moving towards winter.

Sanitaim Pass comes to mind....

Santiam Pass - Wikipedia