The Snowy Mountains are Australia's highest country, and the ride at the centre of them is the Alpine Way — 121 km (75 miles) from Jindabyne in New South Wales past Thredbo, over the crest of the Great Dividing Range at Dead Horse Gap at 1,580 m (5,180 ft), down to 580 m (1,900 ft) at Murray Gorge and on to Khancoban. Most of it sits inside Kosciuszko National Park, which charges vehicle entry. Snow chains are compulsory for two-wheel-drive vehicles on part of it between the June and October long weekends. This guide covers the roads, the season and the hazards (verified August 2026).
The Alpine Way is a hydro road that became a riding road
Understanding where this road came from explains why it rides the way it does. It was built in the 1950s as construction access for the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the hydroelectric project that reshaped this whole region, and it was not fully paved until roughly forty years later in the 1990s. That means the alignment was laid out by engineers who needed to get heavy plant into remote valleys, not by anyone thinking about scenery, and the result is a road that goes where the terrain lets it rather than where a tourist route would.
From Jindabyne it runs south-west beside the Thredbo River, past Thredbo village at the 32 km mark, then climbs to Dead Horse Gap where it crosses the crest of the Great Dividing Range at 1,580 m. What follows is the best part: a long, committed descent to Murray Gorge at 580 m, a thousand metres of altitude given back in a sequence of switchbacks and forest corners. From there the road turns north along the western side of the range, crosses the Swampy Plain River at Geehi, and runs to Khancoban at the 107 km mark before crossing the Murray River into Victoria.
Route at a glance
| Alpine Way length | 121.3 km (75 miles), Jindabyne to the Victorian border |
| High point | Dead Horse Gap, 1,580 m (5,180 ft), on the Great Dividing Range crest |
| Low point on route | Murray Gorge at Snowy Creek, 580 m (1,900 ft) |
| Kosciuszko Road | 95.4 km (59 miles), Pine Valley near Cooma to Charlotte Pass |
| Snowy Mountains Highway | 333 km (207 miles), signed B72, Princes Highway to Hume Highway |
| Chain rule | Two-wheel-drive vehicles must carry chains Thredbo to Tom Groggin, June to October long weekends |
| Park entry | Fee per vehicle per day in Kosciuszko National Park, with a lower motorcycle rate |
| Best window | Roughly November to April, outside the declared snow season (as of August 2026) |
Open the Alpine Way in Google Maps — Jindabyne, Thredbo, Geehi, Khancoban, which you can send to your navigation in Jindabyne while you still have coverage.
Kosciuszko Road and how close you can get to the summit
The other road worth planning around runs the other way out of Jindabyne. Kosciuszko Road is 95.4 km from Pine Valley, about seven kilometres west of Cooma, through Berridale and Jindabyne and into the national park, where it serves Smiggin Holes, Perisher Valley and finally Charlotte Pass. It has been a declared main road since August 1928, which makes it far older than the Alpine Way, and it climbs to about 1,760 m at Charlotte Pass.
Riders sometimes arrive expecting to ride to the top of Mount Kosciuszko itself. You cannot. The road once continued, but the last nine kilometres to the summit have been closed to public vehicles for decades. Charlotte Pass is the end of the tarmac and the start of the walk. It is a worthwhile dead end — the run up from Jindabyne through Perisher is open alpine country and the road surface is good — but plan it as an out-and-back.
The third road in the set is the Snowy Mountains Highway, 333 km of B72 linking the coast to the Hume Highway by way of the mountains, past Kiandra and the Yarrangobilly Caves. Its high sections carry distinctive yellow lane markings and tall red reflector posts, which exist because the snow gets deep enough to bury normal delineation.
Brumbies, kangaroos and a genuinely unusual animal problem
Everywhere in Australia has kangaroos, and kangaroos are the species most commonly hit and killed by vehicles in the country, with dusk and dawn the highest-risk hours. The Snowy Mountains add something less common: wild horses. Kosciuszko National Park holds a significant feral horse population, known locally as brumbies, and estimates of their number have varied enormously over the years — from around 1,700 in one 2008 count to over 7,600 in a 2009 survey, with management and culling remaining publicly contentious. What matters to a rider is not the politics but the physics. A horse standing in the road at dusk is a very different collision from a kangaroo, and horses often move in groups, so one crossing in front of you usually means more behind it.
The standard advice for a large animal is to slow in lane and avoid a sudden swerve. On the Alpine Way descent, where the road is narrow with drop-offs, that advice is the whole strategy. The practical version is scheduling: do not plan to be riding the Geehi descent in the last light of the day.
Season, fees and the practical details
The snow season is the middle of the year. Southern-hemisphere winter runs June to August, and the formal restriction period here is defined by long weekends: two-wheel-drive vehicles are required to carry snow chains between Thredbo and Tom Groggin on the Alpine Way, and inside Kosciuszko National Park on Kosciuszko Road, from the King's Birthday long weekend in June to the Labour Day long weekend in October. Chains on a motorcycle are not a realistic answer, so treat that window as the off-season and ride from roughly November to April instead.
Park entry costs money. Kosciuszko National Park charges a vehicle entry fee per day, with a separate and lower motorcycle rate, and a winter peak period that runs from the June long weekend to the October long weekend. Amounts change, so check the National Parks and Wildlife Service passes and fees page rather than any figure you read in a blog. An annual pass makes sense if you plan more than a couple of visits.
Fuel. Jindabyne and Cooma are the reliable fill points on the eastern side, Khancoban on the western. Between Thredbo and Khancoban there is essentially nothing, and the descent and climb burn more fuel than the distance suggests. Fill in Jindabyne.
Weather. This is alpine country and it makes its own conditions. Snow depths are measured at Spencers Creek at 1,830 m, where a typical peak is around two metres. Summer brings thunderstorms that can carry serious hail at these elevations, and severe hailstorms occur a few times most summers. A clear morning in Jindabyne tells you very little about Dead Horse Gap two hours later.
Gear notes for a park with no coverage and no shops
Between Thredbo and Khancoban you get no reliable mobile data, no fuel and no services, and the road descends a thousand metres into a gorge where nothing reaches you. Loading the route in Jindabyne and running it on a display that does not depend on a live connection is not a refinement here, it is the plan — our guide to choosing a motorcycle GPS setup covers what offline capability actually means, and a JADO S6 riding system keeps the route and the cameras on one screen without the phone leaving your jacket.
The elevation swing matters mechanically too. You climb to 1,580 m and drop to 580 m and come back, with air temperature moving a long way in each direction, and cold air pulls tire pressure down. On a road with tight descending corners and a surface that varies between recently resurfaced and patched, knowing your pressures is worth more than usual — why tire pressure falls in cold weather explains why, and a TPMS sensor flags a slow leak while you are still near a town. With no power between Jindabyne and Khancoban, a bi-directional fast charger keeps a phone and a camera alive off the bike's own supply.
FAQ
Can you ride to the top of Mount Kosciuszko?
No. The public road ends at Charlotte Pass at around 1,760 m, and the final nine kilometres to the summit have long been closed to public vehicles. From Charlotte Pass it is a walk.
When is the best time to ride the Alpine Way?
Roughly November to April. The chain-carrying requirement runs from the June long weekend to the October long weekend, which brackets the practical off-season for motorcycles. Late summer and autumn give you dry roads, long days and settled weather.
Do you have to pay to ride into Kosciuszko National Park?
Yes. A vehicle entry fee applies per day, with a lower rate for motorcycles and a higher winter peak rate between the June and October long weekends. Check the current amounts and pass options with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
How long does the Alpine Way take?
The 121 km can be covered in about two hours if you treat it as transport. Ridden properly, with the Dead Horse Gap crossing and the Geehi descent given the attention they deserve, it fills a comfortable half day and pairs well with the run up Kosciuszko Road to Charlotte Pass on the same trip.
Are the brumbies actually a hazard?
They are large animals with an established presence in the park and no fences keeping them off the road. Treat them like any livestock encounter: slow early, do not swerve hard, and assume that where there is one there are others out of sight.
