Stampede Trail

The Stampede Trail is a road and trail in the Denali Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska near the northern boundary of Denali National Park. 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 rough trail suitable for hiking or all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) following the path of the original road, which has deteriorated over the years. The route ends at an abandoned antimony mine on Stampede Creek, near Stampede Airport's grass airstrip.

Historically, access to the east end of the trail was gained from the Alaska Railroad. Today, the primary access to the trail is from the George Parks Highway (Alaska Route 3) which opened in the early 1970s. The Parks Highway intersects the trail at milepost 251.1, two miles north of the center of Healy. 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.

In 1992, the body of Christopher McCandless was found in an abandoned bus deep inside the wilderness about 28 mi (45 km) down the trail. Writer Jon Krakauer investigated McCandless's travels and journey to the bus in an Outside magazine article published in 1993. He later expanded his article into a book, Into the Wild, published in 1996, which was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007. This made the trail popular among hikers, some unprepared for the rugged conditions, resulting in several rescue operations and some deaths. In 2020, citing safety reasons, the bus was removed and shipped to the University of Alaska Museum of the North.

During the fall, hunting traffic along the trail is heavy as the area is prime habitat for moose. Many hunters use ATVs or Argos to access hunting camps. Moose hunting in this area generally yields high success rates. Winter travel by snowmobile, dog sled, or tracked vehicle, after the boggy tundra, beaver ponds, and rivers freeze, is much easier than summer travel.