After staying 6 nights in Fairbanks, our next stop was Healy for a couple of nights. We’d love to have stayed there for longer, but due to its close proximity to Denali National Park, accommodation prices in Healy in the summer are expensive.
Shae and I had a wonderful time there, even though we only had one full day on the ground. We were fortunate that the weather was beautiful that day, as that helped us maximize our time.
Here’s what we got up to in Healy.
Our Airbnb In Healy
Healy only has a population of ~1,000, so there’s not a ton of accommodation options in the area if you’re not planning on camping or RVing. I’d found a pet-friendly hotel which would’ve cost ~$225 per night including a pet fee, but their site said dogs weren’t allowed to be left unattended in the rooms whatsoever. We were planning on hiking in Denali National Park and dogs aren’t allowed on most trails there, so we were wary of leaving Truffles in the room in case it caused issues with the hotel for our second night.
Thankfully there were a few other options and we ended up booking this Airbnb for ~$255 per night. That was a little more expensive than that other hotel option, but it meant we’d have our own standalone cabin and Truffles would be fine being alone while we were out.
It was a fairly spacious tiny home with two beds, a small table and chairs and our own private bathroom. There was no TV, but we did have a decent enough Wi-Fi connection for me to be able to work in the evening and there was a well-equipped kitchenette considering its small size.
Denali National Park
Our entire reason for staying in Healy was to visit Denali National Park, once known as Mount McKinley National Park. Our Airbnb was only a 15 minute drive from the entrance of Denali which was fantastic as larger cities like Fairbanks and Talkeetna are a 2+ hour drive away.
Denali Buses
It’s worth doing a little research ahead of time so that you can make appropriate plans for visiting Denali National Park if needed. Although the park covers more than 6 million acres, there’s only one main road running through it that’s 92 miles long. You can drive the first 15 miles of it (up to the Savage River trailhead) in your own vehicle, but any distance beyond that you have to be transported by a park bus.
There are a few different types of shuttle buses in the park:
Free Shuttle Buses
There are free shuttle buses that take you from the visitor center to three different locations in the park – the Savage River trailhead, Riley Creek and sled dog demonstrations. The Savage River Shuttle is the one that’ll take you furthest into the park, but that’s only to mile 15 of 92.
Non-Narrated Shuttle Buses
If you’d like to journey further along Denali Park Road, you have to pay for one of two types of bus. The cheapest option is a non-narrated bus, which means that the driver will provide transportation, but it won’t be a guided tour along the road. At the time of our visit in June 2024, tickets were $33.25 for adults ages 16+ and free for children 15 and under.
This is a hop-on, hop-off bus, so once you have your ticket you can travel on any of the buses at any time that day, getting off at stops to visit overlooks or go hiking, then catch another bus later on. Buses travel in both directions, so be sure to get on one heading in the direction you want to go!
Narrated Shuttle Buses
If you have a larger budget and would like to be taught more about Denali National Park during your visit, a third option is to take a narrated shuttle bus. There are two types of tour; there’s a Natural History Tour that costs $116.25 for adults 16+ and $50.75 for children 15 and under, then there’s a Tundra Wilderness Tour costing $144 for adults 16+ and $64.50 for children 15 and under. These prices include the National Park entrance fee, so if you have an annual pass you can get a $15 refund.
There’s a limited number of tickets available for these tours which are booked via Reserve Denali. It might therefore be worth trying to book as far ahead of time as possible in case tickets sell out. That said, at the time of publishing this post I’m seeing availability every single day through the end of the season (September 12) for at least one of the tours.
What We Picked
We’re doing our 50 state road trip on a budget of $125 per day, so paying almost twice that for two of us to go on a narrated tour wasn’t really an option.
We’d considered a non-narrated tour, but there was an issue with that plan. When visiting in June 2024, the Denali Park Road was closed beyond mile 43 due to a landslide at Pretty Rocks. That meant you couldn’t even travel halfway along the road before having to turn back.
When researching our activity and hiking options, it looked like we could be transported via free shuttle buses to sites in the park that we were most interested in, so that’s the option we went with.
Sled Dog Demonstration
To start our day we took one of the free shuttle buses out to the sled dog demonstration. You can visit the sled dogs at any time, but if you want to see a demonstration you have to visit at certain times – 10am, 2pm and 4pm.
A significant portion of the park is a designated wilderness area which means that motorized vehicles aren’t allowed in those sections. As a result, park rangers use sled dogs to access those areas and so these are working dogs.
For the demonstration, one of the rangers gives a talk explaining more about the park, the dogs and their role in the park. They then have rangers bring some of the dogs over and oh my goodness, they’re so cute and hilarious. These dogs love to work, so they’re ridiculously excited when they get picked for the demonstration.
The dogs are used to cooler temperatures, so with it being such a hot day that day the actual demonstration was a little shorter than it might usually be so that they could get back in the shade with water sprayers.
There was more time after the demonstration to pet the dogs (you can do this beforehand too if you’re there early enough before the demonstration), plus we checked out some of the exhibits in one of the cabins.
Savage River Hike
After getting back from the sled dogs, we took a different free shuttle bus out to the Savage River stop. We could’ve driven to that stop ourselves, but based on what I’d read online it can be hard to find somewhere to park. As it turns out, there were parking spaces available that morning, so it might be that parking spaces are harder to come by later in the summer when it’s even busier.
Along the route, the driver pointed out Denali in the distance. She said that we were all lucky as it’s often not possible to see the mountain. The way she said it made us think she was being sarcastic, but it turns out she was serious – Denali is only viewable a relatively small percentage of the time due to cloud cover and other weather conditions, so we were fortunate to be there on a day when we could see it.
Our initial plan had been to hike the 1.7 mile Savage River Loop trail. That’s regarded as a moderate hike, but when getting off the bus Shae asked the bus driver what our best chance would be to see pikas – cute little mammals that look a little like hamsters.
The driver recommended the Savage Alpine Trail, a 4.2 mile one-way trail taking you from the Savage River Campground bus stop to Mountain Vista – another stop on the route the free shuttle bus travels along. To get to the start of the trail, you have to walk back over the bridge to where the cars are parked in the photo below.
If you hike the trail in this direction, the first mile is very steep and strenuous.
The views are lovely though.
As we got higher, the views of Denali got better.
If you hike the Savage Alpine Trail, be aware that it can get incredibly windy up there. So windy in fact that Shae had to take her hat off as it would’ve blown away.
While there was a lot of wind, there weren’t a lot of pikas unfortunately. We didn’t see any on our hike up, but we did see what we think were ground squirrels.
In hindsight, I wish we’d hiked from Mountain Vista to Savage River rather than the other way round as it seemed like that would’ve been downhill much of the way rather than uphill. As time was getting on and we had another hike we wanted to get done that day, at about the 1-1.5 mile point we decided to head back down rather than continue to the end of the 4.2 mile trail.
That ended up being a good choice for another reason. Just as we were getting back, Shae spotted a pika, so she stopped to take some photos. She also returned early the next morning to see if she could find more and take their photos – more about that further on in this post.
Horseshoe Lake Trail
After taking the bus back to the visitor center, we took a path behind the building to our next hike – the Horseshoe Lake trail.
Seeing as this is a loop trail around a lake, we figured it wouldn’t be too strenuous. The Horseshoe Lake loop trail itself is easy, but be aware that to get to it you have to hike downhill which can only mean one thing – at the end you have to hike back uphill!
Just as we started making our way round the lake, Shae spotted a moose through the trees.
It’s a very pretty walk around the lake, so we were glad we made the time to head over there.
Along the route you pass by a beaver dam…
…alongside the Nenana River for a short while…
…and then back up the other side of the lake.
As we continued our way around the loop trail, we spotted that same moose again on the other side of the lake.
We picked up our pace in the hope that we’d get around the lake in time to get closer in order to take better photos.
It worked! We managed to get much closer, but we were still a very safe distance as getting too close to moose can be extremely dangerous.
Wildlife Photos From Denali National Park
All the photos in the post so far were taken with my phone. Shae had her good camera with her in case we spotted any wildlife, so she got some good photos that day. She then returned to the park the following morning to see if she could spot more pikas. She did, plus she saw another moose, a porcupine and more.
She took a ton of photos on both those visits – here are some highlights.
And now lots of cute little pikas!
Pet-Friendly Denali
As is the case with most National Parks, Denali National Park isn’t very pet-friendly if you want to go hiking as pets aren’t allowed on most trails, hence why we left Truffles back at our Airbnb.
However, dogs are allowed in some areas:
- Park roads, parking lots and campground roads
- The Roadside Hiking trail and the Roadside Bike trail
After checking out of our Airbnb, we had a bit of time to kill before being able to check in at our next Airbnb in Wasilla. To get Truffles a little exercise – and let her experience Denali herself – we headed back in to the park to walk some of the Roadside Hiking trail.
49th State Brewing In Healy
After spending the day in Denali, we headed back to our Airbnb to pick up Truffles before heading to our dinner spot for the night – 49th State Brewing.
49th State expanded to Anchorage in recent years, but the brewery began life in Healy. They have a massive selection of drinks – more than two dozen beers, as well as several ciders and wines. Shae had a glass of red wine and I decided to kick things off with a beer flight:
- Apple Fritter ale
- Golden Dall (Belgian)
- Seward’s Folly (Russian imperial stout aged in a whiskey barrel)
- Smōk (smoked lager)
All four of the beers were excellent. Shae tried the Apple Fritter one and loved it too which is a rarity as she doesn’t normally care for beer. My favorite was the Seward’s Folly.
For dinner, we each ordered a less common meat. I got their free range buffalo meatloaf which comes wrapped in bacon with their Smōk lager and mushroom demi-glace and topped with onion strings on a bed of garlic smashed potatoes. It was very tasty and satisfying after going on a couple of hikes that day.
Shae meanwhile went for an even more uncommon meat – yak. That’s because 49th State offers a yak burger that comes topped with caramelized onions, applewood smoked bacon and smoked gouda with lettuce, tomato, onion, mustard, pickles and mayo on a pretzel bun and served with a side of tater tots.
Shae really enjoyed it and I tried a bite to see what yak was like. It was very good – meaty, but not like a meat I’ve eaten before, but not gamey either.
Truffles enjoyed sampling our buffalo and yak too, giving it two thumbs paws up. Dogs aren’t allowed inside at 49th State due to them serving food there, but pups are welcome on their large patio out front.
After finishing my flight, I washed my meal down with their Smoked Maple Doppelbock which was also very good.
Despite being fairly full with all the food and drink, we ordered dessert to share – chocolate mousse pie.
Final Thoughts
We had a fantastic couple of days in Healy. Although our accommodation (and dinner!) was a little more expensive than we might’ve liked, it was well worth it for the experience as Denali National Park is a beautiful area and 49th State Brewing has delicious food and drink.
We really like the GuideAlong app for audio tours of national parks. Way cheaper than guided tours and we have found the majority of the time we like it better than a tour.
I’d never heard of that – we’ll have to check it out.