Femtosecond time-resolved reflectivity was used to investigate below-band-gap (3.1 eV) carrier dynamics in a nominally undoped GaN epilayer under high excitation. A 2.5-ps rising process can be observed in the transient trace. This shot rising time results from the hot phonon effects which can cause a delayed energy relaxation of the initial photocarriers toward the band edge. From the density dependence of the carrier dynamics, the Mott density was estimated to be 1.51-1.56 × 1019 cm-3. Below the Mott density, the initial probed carrier dynamics was explained to the effect of acoustic phonon-assisted tunnelling for localized states, where a significant excitation density dependence of the tunnelling probability was observed due to the optically induced bandtail extension to lower energies. Above the Mott density, the measured carrier dynamics reflected the relaxation of an electron-hole plasma, in which a distinct fast decay component of 2.3 ps was observed due to the onset of nonlinear relaxation processes such Auger recombination.