Bicycling Denali

Day 46.

8/5/26 Wednesday 

Denali shuttle bus system. This is how the shuttle buses and Denali roads work. When you check in to your campground at the entrance you also pay $32/each for the shuttle bus.  You drive to the Savage River and stop at mile 15 or so where there is a ranger station. The ranger gives you a vehicle entrance card with your reserved dates for your window. You are allowed to drive to your campground only. Once you are there and camped to sightsee you must use the park shuttles or hike of bike to go anywhere. Personal vehicles are allowed only until mile 15 (Savage River). The shuttles operate every half hour from 8am – 9pm. Maybe earlier at the entrance. Anyway the general public buses are green. The white buses are reserved wildlife tours. The green buses are hop on, hop off. They will stop anywhere for you to get off or on if you want to hike or bike. They can carry two bicycles. Once you are ready to leave your campground you drive to the entrance…you cannot return. It is really quite simple and works very well.

Bicycles. There are not alot of cyclists on the road but it is common to see them along the way. Some are even bike packing and staying at campgrounds. A few are more ambitious and going beyond the road closure to some point wherever. There is a tent only campground at Wonder Lake into the park. The road goes some 90 miles.

Road closure. A few years (2021) ago there was a huge landslide past mile 43 and it wiped out a bridge and the road. It has been under construction and is due to open soon (maybe 2 weeks) but they are promising next year. At this point you have to hike or carry your bicycle 5 river miles to get around. Some people do it!

Our bike ride today. I think we left about 10:30 am. from our campsites. Snacks and sandwiches, water, extra clothes… Bear spray. We’re ready to go! It was a 14 mile ride to the bridge… slow riding on mountain bikes with almost all of it being uphill. Mostly a steady climb closer to the top of the pass was much steeper. It was a slow ride because we stopped often to look for animals. The buses drove slowly as did the road construction trucks so we could ride in the middle of the road quite a bit. Very bicycle friendly without tourists driving cars. Our campground was as far as private vehicles could drive at all.

Up Sable Pass. . Mostly uphill to the top of the pass. Lots of stops to “glass” (binoculars) for animals. Lance is an avid hunter so he spots caribou and bears very quickly. He’s always looking.

Solitary Caribou buck . Lance spotted many caribou but the closest caribou Lance spotted after we reached the pass was a buck hanging out into an unvegetated white looking rock area. This was a place he could get out of the annoying “flybots” in the tundra that go up their nose and also burrow into their hide and hatch and really bother them. Another place they get away from flies is on the roadways.

From the top of the pass we were looking at 4 miles downhill to the bridge at the road closure. Even though we were reluctant to lose all the elevation and know that we just had to climb right back up it… we rode down. This is where we saw the caribou I mentioned.

We stopped at the bridge to use bathrooms and read the interpretive signs. Jana knew the volunteer (of course… she has known 2 people so far). Lo and behold two caribou come walking down the road toward us before heading down to the river!

Lunch stop. We were all hungry when we reached the bridge but it was too windy and cold to comfortably sit around there so we rode back up the hill just a little way until we were out of the wind and in the sunshine. We just sat in a soft vegetated spot on the side of the road. It was warmer, out of the wind and comfortable.

We slogged our way back up the 4 miles to the summit. Almost all downhill now back to camp! We were looking forward to it.

Sheep Stop Crossing. Our next stop was the Sheep Stop Crossing. I stopped just to photograph the sign. The rule is as follows: From the top of the hour until 10 minutes after all vehicles have to stop to allow animals to cross the road. It was maybe a mile from sign to sign for animals to cross. Do they really know??

Grizzly bears and green buses. We hadn’t ridden very far when a bus stopped us to warn us there was a grizzly just off the road ahead but it was headed uphill. We continued on until we saw buses stopped ahead with lights flashing. The rules are you have to stop when lights are flashing… for safety. It means they are seeing wildlife most likely.

Then both buses started to move and we started to ride again. The wildlife bus approaching us stopped us and demanded that we turn around immediately and go back up the hill! He was yelling orders at us. Reluctantly and too slowly for him, we turned and went 50 yards further up and stopped. He wasn’t happy with that and began waving his arms frantically for us to keep going up. So we went up just a little further. Mr Wildlife Bus told us we had to get in a green bus when it comes down. He said the bear ahead was too close to the road to safely pass. The rule is 300 yards. So we all waited for the green bus to arrive. The white bus was not leaving until we were on the green bus. Finally Mr Green showed up. This driver was far less panicked and actually nice. He could only take two of us since he could only carry two bikes. Jim and I got in. Lance and Jana were going to wait for the next bus… but I seriously don’t think they would have waited.

Then Mr Green bus driver last minute decided to let those two ride beside the bus on the right side opposite of the grizzly bear. They were happy to get going… it was kind of cold outside from the wind.

Of course Mr Green bus stopped at the bear for all the passengers on a very full bus to see the bear. Everyone on the right crowded over to the windows on the left to see the bear moseying his way munching and grazing slowly up the hill. It was a good show. Lance took the bear photo below peeking around the front of the bus.

Mr Green bus driver let us off just another minute or two down the road past the bear. Very quickly Jana and Lance were there and we all flew back to camp on the smooth buttery packed gravel road that remained. Everyone was ready to get back. It was about 7pm when we finished. Long day!!

Yummy dinner. We were guests for dinner. Jana and Lance made us salmon, roasted vegetables and salad for dinner. It was tasty. It was nice enough to eat dinner outside at their camp. Lots of conversations before heading to bed.

We had a Great Day! Denali National Park has massive views for miles. Tomorrow we take the green shuttle bus and hike somewhere to be decided.