We just got back from our first trip of 2023 to Denali National Park & Preserve. We spent five days camped at the Teklanika campground inside the park and mountain biked the road for 4 days. We got to the park on Monday afternoon, set up camp and jumped on our bikes to head up towards Sable Pass, where we ran into a road closure in Igloo Canyon because of a bear kill right next to the road. That’s going to put a damper on our biking plans, but not for long. Details in the pictures.

We were very apprehensive about what we’d find this year with a big construction camp located very near the Tek campground as they begin a multi-year contruction project of a bridge across the Pretty Rocks landslide. We were also worried about how much contruction traffic would impact our biking and enjoyment of the road. Thankfully, these concerns were unjustified—at least for this trip. You can’t see the construction camp from the road, and there was little construction traffic on this trip, only a couple of extra pickup trucks.

We had a wonderful trip, with the first warm temperatures of the summer. Our neighbors, Tyson, Brandy and their 4 year old, Eva, joined us and camped next to us. We had a blast.

So come along. Pictures and captions tell the story.