For many years, the mine was accessed through the use of a winter trail. The Stampede Trail began as the "Lignite to Kantishna" mining trail blazed in 1903 by prospectors drawn to the Kantishna region by the discovery of placer gold. Winter travel by snowmobile, dog sled, or tracked vehicle is much easier than summer travel after the boggy tundra, beaver ponds, and rivers freeze. Moose hunting in this area generally yields high success rates. Many hunters use ATVs or Argos to access hunting camps. ĭuring the fall, hunting traffic along the trail is heavy as the area is prime habitat for moose. Traversing the beaver ponds, "mud flats,” and crossing the Teklanika River are major obstacles preventing most vehicles from continuing more than 5 miles or so down the trail. All tours turn around a few miles east of the Savage River. Their pavilion and other associated buildings are the last permanent structures along the Stampede Road.
While they pick up passengers from all Denali area hotels, the 6圆 tours actually begin at their Eight Mile Lake Base Camp at mile 7.5 of the Stampede Road. This tour is called the Denali Backcountry Safari. As of 2019, Stampede Excursions continues to operate three daily tours along the trail in Pinzgauer 6圆 military grade trucks as well as Volvo C306 6圆 personnel carriers. Denali Tundra Tours ceased operations of an Argo tour in 2016.
In 2015, Alaska Travel Adventures stopped operating Jeep tours along the trail due to deteriorating trail conditions and frequent mechanical problems. The trail currently receives limited tour traffic. In 2020, citing safety reasons, the bus was removed and shipped to the University of Alaska Museum of the North. This made the trail popular among hikers, some unprepared for the rugged conditions, resulting in several rescue operations and even some deaths. The bus was first brought to the public's attention by writer Jon Krakauer in an Outside magazine article a book in 1996 and a film in 2007 followed. The Stampede Trail has been the subject of international attention since the 1992 death of Christopher McCandless, whose remains were found in an abandoned bus deep inside the wilderness about 28 miles down the trail. The valley, known as the Stampede Valley or the Stampede Corridor, is mostly low-lying tundra and watersheds. The trail is located near the northern boundary of Denali National Park in a small finger of State of Alaska public land that extends into the national park. Though this intersection marks the present-day eastern terminus of the Stampede Road, Lignite Road continues a few miles east from this intersection to the railroad tracks and the Nenana River. The Parks Highway intersects the trail at milepost 251.1, two miles north of the center of Healy.
Today, the primary access to the trail is from the George Parks Highway (Alaska Route 3) which opened in the early 1970s. Historically, access to the east end of the trail was gained from the Alaska Railroad. Apart from a paved or maintained gravel road for 8 miles (13 km) between Eight Mile Lake and the trail's eastern end, the route consists of a primitive and at times dangerous hiking or ATV ( All-terrain vehicle) trail following the path of the original road, which has deteriorated over the years.
The Stampede Trail is a remote road and trail located in the Denali Borough in the U.S.
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