I know it sounds crazy to wake up at 2am... but do it. The bus will get you to the summit around 5am for the 6am sunrise. My favorite part was watching the sky change over the course of that hour. BRING ALL THE LAYERS OF CLOTHING YOU CAN. If you don’t use them, you can leave them on the bus or in your backpack but trust me— you’ll use them. With the gusts of wind and elevation this area is freezing. I went in July and couldn’t feel my fingers.
I gave this 4 stars because the biking experience was just a little scary. There is no bike lane. Cars and other bikers zoom by constantly. Many times it’s hard to enjoy the scenery because you are too focused on not getting hit or flying off the side of the road. To do this excursion, you need to feel comfortable on a bike and be extremely cautious, keeping both hands on the handlebars at all times. My boyfriend went to itch his head and only had one hand pressing the break which resulted in him flying over his handlebars and hitting the ground headfirst.