A aremarkable trip to Denali, July 2026 Bears everywhere!

We just spent an incredible week in Denali National Park and Preserve. We had hoped that the new bridge across the Pretty Rocks slide would open to bikers and pedestrians, but sadly, that wasn’t the case. We’ll have to wait another month until it opens to us.

What made up for the disappointment of not being able to bike back into the western part of the park were the bears! They were everywhere this trip, including our first time ever actually seeing grizzly bears mating. The thing we like best about mountain biking the park road is that we can spend as long as we want watching an animal. In the case of the mating pair, I sat at the top of Sable Pass and watched them for almost three hours. Mating, snoozing, wrestling—they were a joy to watch for that long.

I also spotted a grizzly feeding on a kill in Igloo Canyon. He was a bit close to the road, so I grabbed a couple of shots and went past him. The Wildlife Rangers were notified and they did put out warning signs later in the afternoon for a while.

And on our last night, a gorgeous red fox out at The East Fork bridge and a porcupine along the road in Igloo Forest.

We did have weather extremes the entire week, from sunny skies but brutal headwinds on the bikes, to heavy rain at times, and at the end of the week, a lot of fresh snow up on the mountains!

Come along for the ride. Way too many pictures as usual. Click on a thumbnail for full-screen and cursor over the picture for captions that will tell the story.

Very busy backyard today.

Mom and baby moose were back for a visit. They both look healthy. Then a bit later, Boo-boo came by for a dandelion snack. Click on an image to view full-screen.