Hiking/Biking Sunrise Road

I am curious about getting up to Sunrise right now. Is it OK to hike or bike the road up to the spot where the plows have plowed? It looks to me like most of the road is pretty safe (from an avalanche standpoint) but I don't know. I am just wondering if anyone has biked and skied it. If so, any idea what the biking distance is (from the gate to Sunrise Point).

Approx 10 miles and I've biked it before..steep but manageable.
Road is clear all the way.
There is no avalanche danger worth thinking about.
NPS will ,to the best of my knowledge ,not allow you to hike or bike the road...could be wrong.
There are other ways to get to Sunrise that doesn't use the road.
Check Kyle's latest Sourdough ridge TR.

It opens officially on Friday BTW.

NPS will ,to the best of my knowledge ,not allow you to hike or bike the road...could be wrong.

Be sure and enter the Park after the entrance ranger has started work so there will be someone there from the PS to ask  :
If you enter WRRS before regular business hours there will not usually be anyone there to ask, so you'd then be required to figure out what to do without proper supervision  :'(

FWIW, Charles (the founder of TAY) used to do multiple bike/ski trips each year up to Sunrise before they opened the road to vehicle traffic. He'd just wait until the crews got the road cleared up past the (4600 ft) hairpin in the Yakima Park drainage, leave his car at WRCG, ride his bike up to that first hairpin and then stash his bike back out of view from the road and skin up that drainage from there. Then later, when the road was cleared to the top he'd stash his bike at the upper (5800 ft) YP drainage hairpin and skin from there. To my knowledge he never biked above there. If workers would see him up there he was always on skis so they just assumed he climbed up from WRCG. During the week while they were working up there he would just wait until they went home before he rode his bike down the closed road. On the weekends there was no one working up there so there was little chance of meeting a worker on the closed road.

To me it appears the Park Service behaves irrationally over the Sunrise opening date issue. The PS always has the road cleared weeks, even times as much as a month or more before they open Sunrise. They claim they need to get the water and other utilities operational for the tourists which is obvious. But I've asked numerous times why couldn't we come up to ski before the utilities are operational and they just him and haw. One time they said “we cannot open without operational restrooms; it’s a sanitization issue”. Then they installed pit toilets. And again I asked why can't we get in to ski before the utilities are operational. Then they said the snow melt is filling the pit toilets with snow melt. So we have to wait until the snow melts around the pit toilets. I volunteered to bring a crew up and dig the toilets out and divert the snow melt so that the pits will drain. They said no. And so it goes.

1) Charles also used to enter from Grand park a bit longer bu ta interesting traverse.
2) Mike and Brenda( now our gaurdian ski angel ) would climb up directly from White river Campground . "Not a big Deal "
3) Bob Grubb owner of Wapiti Woolies and other Greenwater and hwy 410 business owners have currently been in talks with "The Park" to get Sunrise open. I think our interests coincide.

Yes Ron we ALL know you can enter the park and sneak around the Rangers...many of us do it ALL the time but that wasn't his question. The road is officially closed until it opens on Friday.
If you want to get up there before then...sneak in as Jarvis suggests! Happens all the time.

Me... I don't like having to sneak around these ridiculous NPS restrictions and the Sunrise road is a perfect example of the NPS at it's very,very worst( which is saying a lot).

I've had the same interactions and discussions with the rangers about getting access earlier and some are quite sympathetic but the bureaucrats that make policy and control budgets aren't.

The whole management of  the 410 winter closure, WRCC, Sunrise etc is a huge missed opportunity for the park,  local businesses and more importantly the enjoyment of the public which is what the goddamn park is for.

The best solution would be ban cars until they are finished plowing, but allow bikes and pedestrians. I've been in plenty of places (Hurricane Ridge and Cedar Breaks come to mind) while they are actively plowing and it is no big deal. The plows are slow enough and loud enough to not be a hazard. That way the bikers could go up as far as the plow. Not only would this approach be great for skiers (especially when they are done) but it would be great for bikers (right before they are done). I don't know of any place around here where a biker can get that kind of view without encountering cars. The distance is short (for a bike) but the altitude gain more than makes up for it. I could imagine dozens of bikers (big and small) wanting to experience that, and a handful of folks carrying skis as well. Once the plowing is done, just open it. Make an official announcement and make it clear that there are no facilities and the trails are full of snow. After all, there are plenty of trailheads that don't have bathrooms. The excuses they give for keeping it closed are downright silly.

Thanks everyone for letting me know the rules (even though don't make sense to me).