The county is the reason
Alpine County had 1,204 people at the last census — the least populous county in California — and 96% of it is federally owned, the highest share of any county in the state. That is the whole explanation for the riding. There is nobody here to put on the road.
A cyclist writing up Ebbetts counted about fifteen vehicles on a weekday morning ride — one car every two miles. And two nationally known events, the Death Ride and the Alta Alpina 8 Pass Challenge, both start within a few miles of this property.
Four climbs, and the first one starts down the road
Monitor Pass, west side — 8.2 miles, about 2,650 feet, roughly 6%. The climb begins at the Highway 4 junction a few miles south of us, and it is the Death Ride's opening climb. One climb database ranks it among the ten most epic in California and third in the Tahoe region. No shoulder.
Monitor Pass, east side — about 9.5 miles at 6.5%. Up out of the high desert from Highway 395, with big switchbacks and the steepest ground near the county line. This is the one climb with a rideable shoulder: wider pavement most of the way up, though never a marked bike lane. We drove it in September 2026 to settle that, because the published sources disagree. By that same database's difficulty index it is the hardest climb in the region — harder than the west side of its own pass.
Ebbetts Pass, east — about 11.4 miles, roughly 2,950 feet. The average of 4.9% is a lie told by arithmetic: the first 5.5 miles are gentle at about 3%, and the second half is where it lives, frequently in double digits, with a maximum around 15%. Strava's own editorial names Ebbetts one of the five classic road climbs in California.
The descent is the dangerous part, and three sources say so independently: blind hairpins that steepen at the apex, no guard rails, near-vertical drop-offs. On Death Ride day the organisers paint warnings on the road surface for descending riders — "slow", "slower", "slowest" — ahead of the worst corners.
Carson Pass, east — about 14.3 miles at 3.8%, with the last three miles doing most of the work. Read the warning that comes with it: this is Highway 88, a through route between Reno and northern California, and the reviewer who rated it added that it carries big rigs at highway speeds and a headwind for the full fourteen miles. One rider's verdict: he would not recommend it except on Death Ride day, when it is closed to cars.
Luther Pass — about 8.3 miles at 4.7% from the same base as Carson, the first 5.6 of them on that same busy Highway 88 before turning onto 89. It is also, per the same database, the most efficient and safest way to ride from here to South Lake Tahoe.
The Death Ride, as it runs today
The route changed for the 2021 edition — announced before the Tamarack Fire, not because of it. Carson Pass was dropped for traffic and Pacific Grade added. That edition was then cancelled by the fire the evening before, and the new route was first actually ridden in July 2022.
Today: 103 miles, more than 14,000 feet of climbing, and both sides of Monitor, Ebbetts and Pacific Grade — which the ride counts as its five Hors Catégorie passes. The figure worth ignoring is the 129 miles still carried by Wikipedia and a good many tourism sites: that is the pre-2021 course. The organizers' own route page has the current one.
The 46th runs Saturday 10 July 2027. On ride morning Caltrans closes Highway 89 from Markleeville to the Highway 4 junction from 5am to noon, and Highway 4 over Ebbetts to Lake Alpine until 4pm — which means the road outside this property is closed course. The ride's own lodging page lists us and says the resort "is located on the Death Ride route."
The Alta Alpina 8 Pass Challenge
The other one is run by the Alta Alpina Cycling Club, the road and mountain club for Tahoe, Carson Valley, Carson City and Markleeville, and they call it the world's toughest double century. On the evidence it is hard to argue: 198 miles and 20,300 feet of climbing in one day, out of Turtle Rock Park and back, on the last Saturday in June.
Eight passes, in the order they come: Kingsbury Grade (Daggett Pass) from the east, Luther Pass from the south, Carson Pass from the east, Blue Lakes Road, Ebbetts from the east, Ebbetts from the west, Monitor from the west, Monitor from the east. Four of those eight are the climbs described further up this page, and the two Monitor ascents finish at the junction a few miles from our gate.
Entry is capped at 400 riders and closes when it fills. Cut-off times are enforced at points around the course — the club publishes a timing chart, and it is worth reading before you enter rather than after. There are stocked rest stops through the day and a meal back at Turtle Rock at the end.
⚠️ For 2026 the club ran the 8 Pass only — the Metric, Century, 5 Pass and 7 Pass options were not held that year. If you were counting on a shorter distance, check the event's own page before you plan around it.
The club's accommodations list includes this resort, and describes us as "right on the Alta Alpina challenge course" — which, given that the route climbs Monitor twice from the junction down the road, is simply accurate.
When you can ride at all
Monitor and Ebbetts both close behind gates for winter, and they do not open together. Since 2010 Monitor has reopened between the first week of April and the first week of May; Ebbetts between mid-April and the end of June. In eight of the last ten seasons Monitor opened weeks before Ebbetts.
Caltrans decides, and it re-closed all three passes at least once after opening them in spring 2026. "Opens in May" is a pattern, never a promise. QuickMap has live status.
Two more things worth knowing before you load the car: Highway 4 over Ebbetts has a 23-mile stretch with no centre line, narrow enough that traffic tends to sit in the middle of it. And there is no bike shop in this county on this side of the passes. The nearest is at Bear Valley, over Ebbetts, unreachable from here for half the year. Bring spares, a spare tyre, and a plan for a mechanical.
And if you want dirt
Not much, and the reason is legal rather than geographic. Bicycles are prohibited in designated wilderness — 36 CFR 261.18(b) names them explicitly — and that covers most of the county, including the entire East Fork corridor upstream of here that looks so rideable on a map.
What is legal and good: the Charity Valley Trail, 6.7 miles, which the Forest Service lists as open to mountain bikes, and its Burnside Lake connector. Best ridden downhill, west to east, from Blue Lakes Road.
For gravel: Burnside Lake Road and Wolf Creek Road, both dirt, both seasonal. And for real singletrack, the honest answer is South Lake Tahoe, 45 minutes north.
