Healy, Alaska

Healy is the nearest community to Denali National Park to offer year-round visitor services. The town was settled in the early 1900s by prospectors, trappers and commercial hunters.

Visitors to Healy can enjoy the full range of Alaska’s outdoor activities in the summer and the winter. There are many tour operators in Healy offering activities to include flightseeing by airplane and helicopter, horseback riding, rafting, and many other activities.

Healy has many businesses that serve highway travelers and park visitors including a gas station, hotels, bed and breakfasts, restaurants, gift shops, auto repair shop, grocery store, recreational-vehicle parks. Many are open year-round.

Airplane Tours of Mt. McKinley, Denali National Park

Airplane tours of Mt. McKinley and the mountains and glaciers of Denali National Park are available from tour operators flying out of the airport at Healy. This is a great location to fly out of because it is so close to Denali.

Rafting on the Nenana River

The Nenana River flows north from the Alaska Range of mountains and forms the eastern boundary of Denali National Park. The river is very popular for rafting and whitewater rafting.

Coal Mining

Alaska’s only commercial coal mine is located near Healy. The Usibelli Coal Company extracts 1.7 million tons per year of clean-burning coal that is used locally, in other Alaska communities, and exported. Many of Healy’s residents are employed at the coal mine.

In the summer 1-hour tours are available. Guests visit its quality-control office, main shop, warehouse, coal hopper and crusher. If mining operations permit, they’re also shown the $15 million dragline boom, a 4.3-million-pound shoveling machine with a 33-cubic-yard bucket. Put into operation in the late 1970s, it scoops an average of 24,000 cubic yards of earth in 24 hours.

Access: By road via the Parks Highway from Anchorage to the south or Fairbanks to the north. Air taxi service available in spring and summer.

Location: Healy is 11 miles north of the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve on the George Parks Highway and 78 miles southwest of Fairbanks.

Population: 1,000+

Accommodations: Nine hotels/motels, nine bed & breakfasts, five campground/RV parks, 17 lodges/cabins, five restaurants.

Image Credit: Top, Talkeetna Aero Services