Mountain biking Bonanza Mine above Kennecott and just outside McCarthy, Alaska is a full-value experience!  4500′ above the town of McCarthy, it’s a combo of road, steep double-track, and alpine singletrack.  Some pedal and a lot of push-and-carry!  And the descent is everything from steep/loose tech to steep/fun singletrack to fast doubletrack!  The views will blow your mind – the place is unreal.  And bonus: there was a fully functioning copper mine there in the early 1900s with amazing ruins to explore . . . unreal!!!  I’m still in awe that it’s legal to mountain bike through this UNESCO World Heritage Site in a National Park!  A true bucket list ride. 

Steep and loose, with rad Bonanza Mine ruins in the background!

Still steep and loose, still rad 🙂

Transitioning out of the choss and it feels good!

A brief respite in descent!

A little less steep, and much less loose . . . the views don’t disappoint!

The smile of having made it through the most tech section intact! The top of the ride is beyond the horizon on the left green ridge . . . beautiful alpine and rad riding that would be worthy even without the history. Add the ruins and history and it becomes straight mind blowing.

Riding through the old lift tower from the trolly system used to transport ore down the mountainside from the mine . . . one more steep singletrack section and it’s on to fast and fun double track to Kennecott!

The final steep singletrack – this part was super fun!

And on to the doubletrack ride to Kennecott – still over 1000′ to go! Fast and fun, waterbars to catch air on, and amazing views continue!

While a long push/carry, mountain biking Bonanza Mine above Kennecott is an unforgettable and worthy experience!  For us, it was a 30 min pedal up the road to Kennecott from McCarthy, about 2 hours to the top of the doubletrack, 1 hour to the mine ruins for a total of 3.5 hours climbing.  We spent about 2 hours up top exploring, taking in views, hiking to the ridge, and chilling out – totally worthy and not a place I’d ever want to hurry through!  The descent to McCarthy was about an hour in total – the upper section is a bit slow, we took some rests and more pictures, and the pedal from Kennecott is downhill but not that fast!  Overall, a 7.5 hour adventure . . . such a fun day!