Cycle-Seeing is a More Intimate Way to Enjoy Denali

Planning, organization essential to mountain biking the park road

By Melissa Devaughn
Anchorage Daily News
July 16, 2006

DENALI NATIONAL PARK -- Veteran mountain bikers say the best way to experience Alaska's most famous park is to fly to Kantishna, pedal to Wonder Lake, deep in the Alaska Range, sleep the day away and rise at midnight for an 8-to-10 hour, 85-mile trek to the park entrance.

Sitting in a ranger cabin on a sunny June evening, enjoying sauteed scallops and a glass of chilled white wine with three Denali National Park employees studying bike-bus interactions in the park, it is impossible to avoid wondering if the veterans might not be so right. There is something to be said for stopping to enjoy the peacefulness of it all.

Denali Park Road extends roughly 90 miles from the George Parks Highway to the old gold-mining community of Kantishna. For travelers attracted to this 6 million-acre park and preserve, it has long been a magnet. Dozens of buses that bring the bulk of 400,000 visitors into the park each year travel the road.

While three-quarters of all park visitors never get off a bus except to stretch their legs and explore rest areas, a small but growing contingent of outdoor enthusiasts is itching for more intimate contact with this wild land.

This presents a dilemma and an opportunity for park Superintendent Paul Anderson, himself an avid cyclist.

Anderson pedaled the entire road in 2003 and has biked portions of it several times a year ever since. As a result, he has grown to appreciate the way a rider experiences the park. Plus he has a soft spot for the rugged traveler -- one who chooses to backpack, cycle, ski or climb instead of sit in a bus. And he favors the accommodations these travelers need to make their visits easier.

Yet he also said he feels strongly about maintaining the park's pristine nature while balancing the needs of bus riders and cyclists on the park road. Thus, mountain biking in the park remains stuck in a sort of recreational limbo. Biking can be a very rewarding trek, but it takes some planning.

LIMITED OPTIONS

According to current park rules, bicycles are not allowed off the road into Denali's backcountry. That means a cyclist who wants to ride the entire road must choose from limited options:

- Cycle it all in one long and grueling day;

- Split the ride into a lopsided overnight camping trip at Wonder Lake's Mile 85 and the Sanctuary River campground at Mile 23; or

- Lock the bike at a ranger station or campground and go into the backcountry to camp.

All three of the options are doable, Anderson acknowledges, but not ideal for the average cyclist. And while he agrees that it would be nice to accommodate cyclists better, he wrestles with just how.

Our group of riders included Anderson; Donna Sisson, chief of concessions; and Kevin Apgar, Alaska region concessions program manager. We spent two days on the road, sleeping at a ranger cabin used for sled dog patrols in the winter and general park service use during summer.

The cabin also houses the artists who are chosen for the annual artist-in-residence program; park employees stay there during overnight assignments in the backcountry. Visiting park officials often sleep there too, Anderson said.

But even with this lodging, our trek also was lopsided. We began at a viewpoint near Mile 62 of Stony Pass and rode 19 miles to the cabin. It was another 43 miles on Day 2 to reach the park entrance.

As we began our trek, however, miles were of no concern. Anderson stepped off the camper bus that carried us and our bikes and said, "This is a good start."

From the overlook, Mount McKinley stood 20,320 feet tall, glistening white amid the bluebird sky. Because it creates its own weather patterns so high up there in the atmosphere, McKinley frequently is cloaked in clouds. But on this day, the hordes of tourists who had disembarked from the buses at the overlook were treated to the awesome sight.

While many of them clicked away taking pictures, a few people just stood there, looking at the mountain as if it were an apparition. It literally loomed above them, even though it is still a full 40 miles away.

Camper buses can only carry two bicycles at a time, so Sisson and Apgar had arrived on an earlier bus and were waiting for us. It's a rule Anderson said he would like to see altered because it limits a group's ability to travel together in a timely manner.

"We are exploring use of external bike racks for the front of the buses to improve capacity," Anderson said. "However, overall length of the buses may be an issue due to the narrow and winding nature of the park road.

"Change doesn't come easily, but we're continuing to work on it."

Sisson is a former road and cross-country bike racer, and she had the gear and pedal power to prove it. Apgar rode slow and steady, rarely stopping and somehow always staying ahead of the rest of us. Both carried the relaxed smiles of office workers relieved of their deskbound duties.

They saw this trip as a way to watch their work in progress. Doyon-Aramark Joint Venture is the concessionaire that works with Sisson and Apgar's division to run the buses. The dust and grit buses stir up is the No. 1 complaint among cyclists and pedestrians using the road.

SHARING THE ROAD

Except for the first 15-mile paved section, the park road is a narrow mix between dirt and gravel, yet amazingly free of washboards and potholes.

In the dry summer, it can get dusty, leaving grit in your mouth and grime on your gear every time a bus passes. Yet park rules about bike use are strict: No off-road cycling is allowed, and if a bus approaches, from either direction, a cyclist must stop and put down one foot to acknowledge its presence.

Sisson was happy with what she saw.

"The interactions were really smooth, and I was pleased to see the buses slow to low-dust speed (as required)," she said. "It was very encouraging to see the drivers smile, like they were glad to see we are enjoying the road, too."

In fact, she said, being required to stop at passing buses reminds riders of why they are in Denali in the first place.

"If you had the idea that you're out on this road for training, it might seem frustrating, but that's not the approach when you're on the road to enjoy the scenery," she said. "The stops become a good opportunity to appreciate the surroundings."

During our frequent stops, we gazed at sweeping mountain views, stopped in meadows for snacks and rested at roadside pullouts to chat. Because of the wide-open nature of the road, we usually saw the buses from far away and gauged our descents so as not to be interrupted.

Anderson, who pedaled conservatively on laborious ascents such as Sanctuary Hill and Primrose, became his former ski patroller self on the downhills, whizzing at speeds approaching 40 mph.

At the cabin after our first night, we shared stories of life in the outdoors -- from hiking the Appalachian Trail to skiing the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

But we all agreed there is nothing quite like Denali.

"Riding a bicycle on the park road ... gets you away from the noise and crowds on the bus, allows you to travel at your own pace -- stopping wherever and whenever you wish," Anderson said. "(It) really impresses upon you that you are a part of the landscape, not separate from it.

"Denali is a very big park by anyone's standards. It is even bigger when your mode of transportation is a bike or skis, or foot, and you measure your progress at a mile or two an hour, rather than the speed of a car or bus."

CYCLING FORTITUDE

Anderson said that change is slow to come to big organizations such as the National Park Service, but he hopes that Denali's cycling logistics will one day get easier. He'd love to see improved camping options for cyclists so they can plan leisurely paced trips.

Progress has been made, too. One doesn't have to bike the entire park road to take advantage of what the park has to offer, he pointed out.

"In the last three years, park staff (have) constructed a multiuse trail from the Parks Highway bike path to the new Denali Visitor Center campus," he said. "That trail seems to be quite popular with both hikers and bicyclists. We are also pursuing an extension of the existing Parks Highway bike path that would parallel the Parks Highway connecting McKinley Village to the Park Entrance."

Denali Visitor Center manager Clare Curtis, who has been cycling the park road with her husband, Ken, since the early '80s, said she likes doing day trips in the park, which eliminate logistical challenges. She prefers riding the road during the shoulder seasons of spring and fall when the road is closed beyond Teklanika.

"It's one of the best times of the year to be out on the park road, because you basically are out there with the walkers and bikers and that's it," she said. "That low, beautiful light you get in the spring and fall is just glorious."

In the summer, Anderson said, cyclists will secure a campsite at Teklanika campground and use it as a base of operations to ride the Park Road both directions, or catch a bus toward Toklat and ride back to camp.

"Any of these sections of the road offer spectacular scenery, and a good chance of viewing wildlife," he said.