Mckinley Trail Cabin

Located just off the Copper River Highway in the Chugach National Forest, McKinley Trail Cabin offers year-round recreation and relaxation. Although the cabin isn't in the remote wilderness, it makes a good base camp for exploring the Copper River Delta and the surrounding areas. Access is by motor vehicle: the trailhead is at Mile 21 of the Copper River Highway, and the cabin is approximately 80 yards from the road on the McKinley Lake Trail. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. McKinley Trail provides access to nearby lakes and a historical mining site. 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. The trail also reaches McKinley Lake and McKinley Lake Cabin, about 2.25 miles from the trailhead, meeting the shoreline of the lake at both its southern end and at the cove at its upper area. Hiking approximately a quarter-mile beyond that 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. The closest fishing area to the cabin is just across the highway in the upper part of Alaganik Slough. The highway is a two-lane dirt road with anywhere from 10 to 75 vehicles per day. Coho salmon move into the slough with the high tides downstream, and in late August and September they start moving up the slough to the spawning grounds, passing near the cabin; other coho fishing spots are found in the area as well. Hunters have a long season in the surrounding national forest — bear in spring and fall, deer from late summer through late fall. The 12-by-14 log cabin has wooden bunkbeds that sleep up to six guests, a table, a wood stove for heat 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 stands at the start of the McKinley Lake Trail in a dense spruce and hemlock forest, with steep mountainous terrain surrounding the area. Waterfowl, Sitka black-tailed deer, moose, black and brown bear all find habitat in the surrounding forest and nearby lakes.