Bike travel and our national park system

The latest Ken Burns documentary, “The National Parks: America's Best Idea,” began airing on PBS on Sunday. It got me thinking about how the parks are wonderful destinations for bike touring.

The traffic at some of the most popular can be daunting; Yellowstone National Park warns about narrow roads and non-existent shoulders.

But in spite of cars and campers, bicycling up to the rim of the Grand Canyon, left, is an experience I'll never forget.

Here are links to some stories I've written over the years about bicycling in the national parks. There are stories about the best parks for bicycling, spring cycling in high-elevation parks, and a new bike route map from Adventure Cycling Association that will visit a half-dozen national parks in the Pacific Crest.

“10 best national parks for bicycling” — August 3, 2009:

National parks might seem like natural destinations for family car trips or RV excursions, but they also have many factors that make them ideal for bicycle travel.

The park scenery — be it desert sands, forests, or challenging mountains — can be enjoyed better from a bicycle saddle than from a car seat. And I've found that the National Park Service has afforded bicycle riders some advantages not enjoyed by those in cars. …..

The Gorp.com travel website has published what it considers its top 10 national parks for bicycling…

It's spring, the time of year when bicyclists rule the road at the Yellowstone National Park. With park road crews clearing snow and preparing the roads for motorized traffic, certain park roads have been opened to bicycle-only traffic.

Glacier National Park in Montana also is undergoing its spring snowplowing schedule. Visitors can bicycle beyond the motor vehicle closures when crews are not working.

How about a scenic bicycle tour through the mountains? Better lube your granny gear.

The Adventure Cycling Association is working on a set of maps called the Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route that would route touring bicyclists on paved roads along the Pacific Crest. (They're shooting for a April 2010 release date.)

Among the many landmarks along the 2,500-mile route from Canada to Mexico, the route will pass through the North Cascades National Park, Crater Lake National Park, Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park, Yosemite National Park, Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park.

The non-profit previously published its 859-mile Washington Parks map that takes a figure-8 route through North Cascades, Mount Rainier and Olympic (above) national parks.

The National Park Service is suspending commercial downhill bicycle tours of the Haleakala volcano on Maui for 60 days as it studies ways to make them more safe.

A series of fatalities and injuries on the tours prompted the park service action. Cyclists coasting downhill have crossed the centerline and run into oncoming traffic, as well as missed one of the many switchbacks on the 38-mile winding route to the bottom.

[Note: The moratorium continues into 2009. Downhill bicycle tours are not permitted within the boundaries of Haleakala National Park. Some companies listed here provide a road-based vehicle tour within the park and start bike tours outside the park.]

Do not, repeat, do not ride your bicycle into the Grand Canyon. Three men on an Alaska to South American bicycle tour cycled it last month and found themselves sentenced to 48 hours in jail.

The trio is on a pan-American off-road bicycle tour they call Riding the Spine. They started at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, last July and plan to ride to the tip of South America.

The mountain bikers picked up the Arizona Trail an 800-mile trail that spans Arizona from the Utah to Mexico borders and decided to ride their bikes into the Grand Canyon and camp on the North Kaibab Trail.

Bicycling is not allowed on any rim hiking trails or on any trail below the rim, according to the Grand Canyon National Park management plan. It's a misdemeanor.

Although I had visited the Grand Canyon a couple of times before, I never really appreciated in a personal way how it was formed until I rode there on my bicycle.

All the books (well, the scientific ones) say that eons ago, a
plateau rose up in this area while a river cut through the rock. I
always understood the erosion part, but I didn't get the rising plateau
part until I realized I was climbing a big hill to get to the canyon.