Healy Pass

· by · in Hikes. ·
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The view just before Healy Pass

Healy Pass is a great hike near the Alberta-British Columbia border. The scenery here is incredibly beautiful and is a great hike for seeing golden larches in the fall.

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Healy Creek

The trailhead starts at the Sunshine Village Ski Area gondola base station, and follows the trail up Healy Creek. You’ll spend a lot of the trail in the forest, winding alongside the creek. However the forest isn’t too dense, there are some clearings and a super spot beside Healy Creek for cooling your feet in on the way back down!

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Crossing Healy Creek to get out of the forest

When you’ve finally cleared the denser forest, the trail opens out into more open grassland just beside Healy Creek. There are still a few trees, but from here you can really admire the views, even before you reach the pass.

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Golden larches on the way up to Healy Pass

Head straight up the trail towards Healy Pass, you’re now walking through a mix of alpine meadow and larches.

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The view from Healy Pass

Upon reaching the Healy Pass we stopped and headed along the ridge to the left to enjoy our lunch. We stopped for quite a while, it was really nice to have some quiet time and just take in the views. You could spend a lot of time here just enjoying the scenery.

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Amazing views from the ridge of Healy Pass

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It was such a clear and bright day, the views were amazing!

On the return to the trailhead, we stopped for a little while to cool our feet down in Healy Creek. There was a perfect spot, which had a lot of flat stones to walk on!

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The perfect place to stop and cool your feet off on the way back down

The total return distance for the hike is approximately 18.4 km (11.4 miles) with an elevation gain of 655 metres (2150 feet).

© RockiesOutdoors 2015.

24 responses to “Healy Pass”

  5. Now that’s a good length hike and in beautiful surroundings I’d love to do – like so many of your blog posts! The mountainous landscapes are so stunning. Your photos always make me sigh and dream of adventures in the Rockies. 🙂

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  10. A beautiful scenery, what a nice hike. The fall colours are stunning! Does the hike start at the bottom at the gondola or do you take the gondola up first?

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    • Thank you for reading! Yes, it starts near the lower gondola station, and then follows up Healy Creek. I think you can start at Sunshine Meadows, which would be quite good, as you’d avoid hiking through so much forest! 🙂

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  12. Seeing your photos makes me feel like I’m getting a breath of fresh air. I so wish I could be there to see it all in person. Thanks for walking your readers through your journeys, so I can “join” you on an imaginary hike. 🙂

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