Mckinley Lake Cabin

McKinley Lake Cabin offers a remote lodging experience in southcentral Alaska, located on the northwest end of McKinley Lake in the Chugach National Forest, with fishing, hiking, hunting and wildlife viewing all within the vicinity. Access is by hiking, float plane or canoe. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. McKinley Trail provides access to both the McKinley Trail Cabin, located just 100 yards from the trailhead, and this cabin, which is about 2.25 miles from the trailhead. The trail meets the shoreline of the lake at its southern lobe and at the cove at its upper end. Hiking approximately a quarter-mile beyond the cabin, visitors will find remnants of the Lucky Strike Mine — rusting machinery, pipes and a collapsed tunnel are the most obvious evidence of the mine site. At approximately 1.25 miles from the trailhead is the junction for the Pipeline Lakes Trail, which wanders through muskeg meadows and spruce-hemlock forests below steep mountainsides; in the spring, brown bears can be seen grazing on the new grass on the south-facing slopes. Anglers will find cutthroat trout near inlet creeks and gravel shoals near the cabin, and more healthy coho and sockeye at the mouth of the lake outlet. Many anglers concentrate on the Dolly Varden that follow the sockeye to eat their eggs. Walking up the Pipeline Lakes Trail, anglers will discover a series of five small lakes with resident cutthroat trout and some Dolly Varden, where using dry flies is the best bet. Hunters have a long season in the surrounding national forest — bear in spring and fall, deer from late summer through late fall. The 16-by-20 cabin is equipped with wooden bunks that sleep up to six guests, a table, benches, a wood stove for heat, saw, axe, splitting maul, a rainwater catchment barrel and an outdoor pit toilet. There is no running water, electricity or cut firewood: bring your own drinking water and firewood, plus food, sleeping bags and pads, a cook stove, matches, cooking gear, lanterns or flashlights, toilet paper, a first aid kit and garbage bags. All trash and food must be packed out, and visitors are expected to clean the cabin before leaving. The cabin is situated on McKinley Lake, surrounded by a dense spruce and hemlock forest, with steep mountainous terrain encircling the area. Loons and other waterfowl find habitat on the lake, while sockeye salmon splash and spawn in the nearby creek. Sitka black-tailed deer, moose, black and brown bear also inhabit the forest.