Sunrise Park Road, Mount Rainier National Park

Sunrise Park Road
Road to Sunrise Ampitheater

The Road to Sunrise Ampitheatre is extremely twisty and challenging. The paving also leaves a lot of be desired with large frost heaves and sunken sections of pavement. Be quite careful when riding this road due to these concerns and the astonishingly heavy tourist traffic in the afternoons.

However, where the paving is smooth, you’ll find a technically-challenging road with several sharp switchbacks and lovely tight curves. The curves are fairly well-planned, but the road has been sorrowfully neglected recently, and doesn’t appear to get much in the way of preventive maintenance.

The Road up to Sunrise Ampitheater

The Road up to Sunrise

Do be careful of the turns, as there are rather large drop-offs and no shoulder or guide rails in much of the area.

Map of Sunrise Park Road

Above: A Map of Sunrise Park Road

Below: A General Map of Mount Rainier National Park

General Map of Mt. Rainier National Park

Additional Photos from my August 2008 trip up to the Sunrise Visitor Center:

Google Map:

View Larger Map

5 Comments

  1. admin Says:

    Good news.

    I’ve read recent reports that the National Park Service has gotten around to repaving the Sunrise Road. I’ll see if I can sneak off some morning soon to ride up to Sunrise.

  2. Kevin Says:

    FYI any ticket that is received in a WA Nat. Park is a criminal arrestable offense and a steep fine.

  3. KJ Says:

    Fantastic views from the top of the east and west sides of the Cascades. Coming up to the visitors center is an breath taking view of Mt Ranier. I did this ride again this past summer. The pavement is not bad, it’s the portion of pavement that sinks from the contractions of ice and heat. It will bounce you right off the seat if you going too fast.

  4. S Atkinson Says:

    Camping at at White River $12 a night. Plenty of smalls sites. Good base camp for Sunrise.

  5. SP Says:

    Went up here with the BMW (car) club in August 2011. Great drive and we really got to hammer it in the twisties. No traffic enforcement that we saw. But lots of tourist traffic (go early on a weekend or just go on a weekday).

Leave a Comment