ESTACADA, Ore. — A 19-mile stretch of Highway 224 reopened east of Estacada on Sunday for the first time since the region was devastated by wildfire in September 2020.
The Riverside Fire started on Sept. 8, 2020, and burned more than 138,000 acres in Clackamas County. The fire burned so close to Estacada and other nearby communities that residents were forced to evacuate their homes.
Since then, crews have spent the past 20 months clearing debris, replacing guardrails and highway signs, installing restraining mesh to hold back rockfalls and removing "tens of thousands of dead and dying danger trees" that posed a risk to highway commuters, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) said in a news release.
Despite the reopening, ODOT says there is still much more work that needs to be done along Highway 224.
That work includes removing loose rocks from steep hillsides, reseeding the area with native plants to reduce weeds and patching potholes.
"This summer, visitors will encounter road closures of up to 20 minutes at varying locations, seven days a week, and will see trucks loaded with debris, rock scaling work and asphalt being repaired," the release from ODOT said.
The highway closure blocked the way to a number of recreation areas in the Mt. Hood National Forest. Some businesses that rely on outdoor tourism took a hit.
Luke Spencer and his wife have run Clackamas River Outfitters in downtown Estacada since 2015. They sell paddling products and offer rentals for outdoor water activities.
In an interview last January, Spencer told KGW business was good at the beginning of the pandemic but when Highway 224 closed, the number of customers dropped off dramatically.
"In the winter, we rely on the winter boating traffic to create revenue for business," Spencer said. "Without the availability of access to the river, those folks just aren’t coming out here. They are going to other rivers, which doesn’t bring them through Estacada and doesn’t bring them into our shop."
On Sunday, the U.S. Forest Service reopened the Hole in the Wall and Moore Creek boat access sites and Big Eddy day-use site, ODOT said, adding that all other Forest Service recreation facilities in the Clackamas River corridor will remain closed at least through the end of 2022.
