As a day trip

 

The Maryhill Museum of Art is located just about 100 miles east of Portland/Vancouver.  The drive up the Columbia Gorge on Washington State Route 14 is very enjoyable with sweeping views of the gorge, charming small towns, and it’s a driver’s road (nice surface, nice curves) that makes for a very enjoyable trip all by itself.  It means an early departure to get there by 10 a.m. (cars are placed on the show field 8-10 a.m.), but it is certainly an option.

 

For the return trip after the mid-afternoon awards, you can backtrack on SR 14 or take the bridge over to the Oregon side and hightail it back home on I-84.   This will get you back home by dinnertime.

 

Of course, not everyone is coming from the Portland/Vancouver area, but your routes and driving times from points north, south and east of the Museum are probably already well known to you.  If not, contact us for advice.  There are many great drives to experience going to and from Maryhill. 

 

 

As an overnight trip

 

Even better than a day trip is going to the area on Friday so you’re close by on Saturday morning for the show.   There are motel options in Goldendale, Biggs Junction and Rufus, and perhaps the biggest advantage of going to the area on Friday is the opportunity to catch dinner at Bob’s Texas T-Bone Restaurant & Barbecue in Rufus on Friday evening.  Of course, we also like Ayutla’s Family Mexican Restaurant in Goldendale.  But whatever your dining pleasure, arriving in the area the evening before makes for a more relaxed Saturday morning, and here’s an insider’s tip: Bob’s serves breakfast Saturday morning beginning at 6 a.m.      

 

 

As a full weekend trip

 

Now we’re talking.  Come up Friday, enjoy the culinary treats of the area on Friday evening, take in the car show and the museum on Saturday, and stay over Saturday night so you can also catch the Maryhill Loops Hill Climb on Sunday.  When was the last time you saw a hillclimb race?  That’s what we thought.

 

The Maryhill Loops Road is located just 4 miles east of the Maryhill Museum on SR 14.  The race is a revival of the original hill climb held there 1955-63, and has now been running for over 20 years.  The racecars will visit the car show on Saturday so you can see them up close and personal, and so Sunday is a chance to see them in action on the wonderfully winding Maryhill Loops Road – they don’t call it a “loops” road for nothing. 

 

All that and you can still be home for dinner Sunday, and here’s an insider’s tip: If you take SR 14 west when leaving Maryhill, be sure to stop at the “Antiques & Oddities” antique store in Bingen, right on the main drag.  They’re open only until 4 p.m., and it is so worth it.  As Monty Python might say, “And now for something completely different.”  

 

 

No matter how you do the Concours de Maryhill, you’ll see over 200 cars of a wide variety and of many types and vintages, and the additional cultural attractions – the Museum, Bob’s Texas T-Bone, The Maryhill Winery, the Maryhill Loops Hill Climb race, the Wishram historic locomotive, the Stonehenge replica and the antique store in Bingen – combine to make it much more than a car show.  It’s a memorable late-season driving event that you’ll probably put on your calendar every year to wrap up the touring season.  And then we’ll do it again next year, always on the first Saturday in October.