Nehalem Highway


The Nehalem Highway No. 102 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Oregon that passes through the Nehalem River valley. It runs from U.S. Route 101 in Astoria southeast to Oregon Route 8 in Forest Grove. Between Astoria and the Mist-Clatskanie Highway in Mist, it is signed as Oregon Route 202; the rest is signed as Oregon Route 47. A piece at Astoria, north of the Warrenton-Astoria Highway, is also U.S. Route 101 Business.
After departing Astoria, it meets the Nehalem River at Jewell and follows it upstream to a point a few miles south of Vernonia where it turns south. It is a relatively old inland route to Astoria from the Tualatin Valley. In the early part of the 20th century, it followed the Nehalem River all the way to Timber, crossing the divide of the Northern Oregon Coast Range there and then going down Gales Creek to Forest Grove, instead of going down Dairy Creek as it has since about 1940.