While no entrance fees make it a good week to pay a visit to a national park for a bike ride, mountain bikers in Washington state are getting access to trails in two national forests for a couple of months before all-terrain vehicles.
The National Park Service is waiving entrance fees this week to celebrate National Park Week.
Normally, entrance to Mount Rainier National Park is $15 for private cars and trucks and $5 for anyone entering by foot or bicycle. Those fees won't be charged April 16-24.
While many roads into and through Mount Rainier are closed for the season, the Carbon River Road, above, is open year-round only to bicycles and hikers. You might find that the road is narrowed by fallen timber in places, but the staff tries to keep a path open.
Many other national parks will be experiencing road closures due to snow conditions this week as well.
Mountain biking
Meanwhile, the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest officials are closing motorized-use trails in the Naches and Cle Elum Ranger Districts to motorized vehicles from April 15 – June 15, although they will remain open for mountain biking during that period.
The area is especially wet this spring, and the closure is meant to minimize impacts to travel routes, camping areas, water resources and vegetation this spring.
The closure shows a realization by forest service officials that mountain biking doesn't have the same impact on wet trails as heavy vehicles.
A drawback, however, is that mountain bikers might find lots of fallen timber or other debris on the trails. The closures for all-terrain vehicles means that volunteers won't be able to get into those areas as early as normal to remove blowdowns that could block the trails.
Here's the trail closure news release and a link to trail closures in the Naches Ranger District.
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