Why Choose Mount Healy Overlook Trail
Looking for a great hike without driving hours from Denali National Park? Hiking Mount Healy Overlook Trail is your perfect pick! It’s right at the park entrance and comes with a sweet bonus – it might be your second chance to spot Mount Denali if clouds blocked your view during park bus tour. Talk about a backup plan with perks!
Location Perks for Mount Healy Overlook Trail
- Right at the park entrance – no extra driving needed
- Alternative viewpoint for Mount Denali
- Perfect add-on to your Denali park visit
- Great option for a half-day hike
Trail Tips and Parking Strategy
On our second day in Denali, we split into two groups – some took the gentle Horseshoe Lake Trail, while we tackled Mount Healy. Here’s a pro tip: even though the trailhead starts at the Visitor Center (for both trails), park at the Bus Depot to avoid the parking crunch!
My husband Tom is really good at hiking downhill. He goes much faster than us. The trail ended at the Visitor Center, but our bus was parked at the Bus Depot, which was over a kilometer further. So Tom went to get the bus first and drove to Visitor Center to pick us up, saving us more than a kilometer of walking.
Mount Healy Overlook Trail Details
We actually pushed beyond AllTrails endpoint, conquering a few extra peaks. The total elevation gain is a solid 800 meters (2,625 feet), instead of 525 meters from Alltrails. Talk about earning those views!
Post-Hike Food Adventures
Hidden Gem Food Truck
Starving after the hike, we headed to Healy and found this awesome Thai food truck right across from Three Bears supermarket, next to an RV park. Local reviews were stellar! We tried:
- Pad Drunken (rice noodles – pretty tangy and salty)
- Pad Thai (could’ve used more sauce, but tasty!)
Don’t miss the 49th State Brewing Co nearby – they’ve got a location in Anchorage too. Worth checking out!
Magic Bus for Movie “Into the Wild”
Here’s something cool – right in front of the brewery sits the movie bus from “Into the Wild”! The real Magic Bus 142 was actually 32km down Stampede Trail – The trailhead is 16 km north of Denali park entrance.
A bit of local history: Since the 2007 the movie “Into the Wild” came out, the real bus became quite a pilgrimage spot. But it caused some problems – 15 rescue missions in 10 years, costing taxpayers big time. River crossings were especially dangerous, with some tragic outcomes. Just three days before our visit, there was another unfortunate incident with a newlywed couple.
