The Historic Gakona Lodge

Situated just a smidge north of Glenallen, AK the Gakona Lodge sits alongside the Tok Cutoff Road headed towards Valdez (pronounced Val-deeze) and Anchorage, AK and is about 2 miles from our campsite at the Gakona RV Park.

Historic because it is one of the only remaining roadhouses that were built in the 1920's every 30 miles or so along the Valdez to Eagle Trail to serve the gold fields. Mining supplies and personnel were shipped into Valdez and wagonned up to the gold fields and the yellow rock came back down the trail and was shipped out. Today, the port of Valdez loads the black gold (oil) from the North Slope onto tankers as it is the terminus of the Trans Alaska Oil Pipeline. If you've ever purchased a drop of fuel from ARCO the origin of that gasoline came thru this pipeline and port.

The lodge is now mostly a tourist destination with many of the original buildings in use as a restaurant, tavern and about 20 rooms and cabins situated right next to the raging Gulkana River.
Debbie and I stopped in last night and had a delicious dinner in the log building that served as a wagon repair shop back in the day. Very cool room with lots of artifacts, photos and other historic memorabilia to ponder over.


Read some of the history here.....

After dinner we slid on into the tavern for a quick nitecap and talked with some of the locals. Here's some of the characters we met and their stories:

Julia and her hubby (can't remember his name) - older retired couple who have lived next door to the lodge since the early '70's. She was the town postmaster for many years while hubby 'worked the slope' - assuming that meant he worked up in the oil fields on the North Slope. Told us all the history of flooding due to ice dams in the Spring, incredible tales of the annual Copper River 300 Mile Dog Sled race and how much they love living here.

Crystal - nursing a glass of white wine at the bar, she's a local gal, probably late 30's. Born and raised about 500 feet down the road, went off to Fairbanks to get her college degree, traveled for a few years and ended up back in Fairbanks for about 10 years working and missing home. Been back home for around 4 years now. We ask, how are the winters up here? She says the cold doesn't bother her but the long days of darkness is the toughest part to handle. Said if she could get out from Thanksgiving til Valentines Day that would be ideal - and this is from a person who has lived here most of her life. So, she casually mentions that she guided river trips in the area for many years. I ask, who would you recommend if we wanted to do a guided rafting/fishing trip? Oh, hell I'll take you, when do you guys want to go? I don't know, how about tomorrow? Checks her schedule on her iphone and says how about 11 AM for $100 for the both of you? More on this later...

Matt - appeared to be the manager of the lodge, very nice - but a bit verbose and authoritarian - grew up in Colorado and has been out here 10 years or so. He said the top 3 things you need to do here in the Copper River Valley is - take a flight tour of Wrangell/St. Elias NP; go river rafting; fish for salmon. He said if he could pick only one thing it would be the flight tour, want me to call them for you and reserve a spot? Now I'm thinking, OK this guy has a spouse or a close family member that owns or pilots for the flight company. No, thats OK Matt, where are they located and I'll check it out, thanks.

The rest of the crowd seemed to be locals and very friendly with smiles and nods towards us when we made meaningful eye contact. Unlike some other places where the locals tend to not like outsiders...this was a refreshing change, very nice people.

We woke up the next morning (today) and the weather temps were forecast in the low 60's with high winds so we called Crystal and cancelled, next time Crystal, thanks again for the kind offer, it would have been a blast but not in cold, windy weather.

We did however notice that the skies were clear with great visbility so I motored on down to the airstrip in Glenallen to inquire about a flight tour of the Wrangells. Talked to Meade, a mid 20'ish guy who grew up on a ranch in Colorado with an airstrip - both his parents were pilots and he was flown home from the hospital by Dad right after he was born. He said, for sure, today was a great day to fly but might be a tad bumpy due to the winds. Let's do it Meademeister!

At 1 PM Debbie and I take off with pilot Jim and view some spectacular scenery.


Put those trays in an upright and locked position.....we're pulling away from the gate.

Words can not describe it so I'll let the pics speak for themselves. The pics barely describe it as it needs to be seen to be believed but the pictures come a little closer than words do.


Glaciers to the right.........


Glaciers to the left.....

I loved the colors in this one, go ahead and click on it you know you want to. This would make a great 1500 piece jigsaw puzzle.

Loved the colors here too...looks like someone spilled their Gatorade.

Matt was right, this flight tour was well worth it!

After the flight Meade told us the Lodge is having a concert tonight so we may head down and check it out. Late update - checked it out and what fun we had. Lots of locals digging the tunes of a really good local band, fun was had by all! Alaskans are so cool.

We're staying here another day or so because there is so much to see and quite frankly we need a few days off of the road to get our senses and bearings back in order...it's working out fine, just another day or so and we'll be off to Chitna/McCarthy and then on to Valdez.

Oh, forgot to update you all on the cannabis situation in Tok. Nothing noticeable - no shops, no ads, no displays...in talking to the locals the legislation is so new no one can figure out what is allowed or not - sounds like every other piece of legislation that's passed, right? You can do it but by God don't ask us any details on how it is to be implemented, controlled or managed. There are no visible weed stores although I'm sure they exist if you ask the right question to the right person. So there you have it - no weed in Tok. Now, if one of you enterprising folks out there wants to make some good cash and clean up, what better place to open up a weed shop than Tok? If nothing else think of the advertising fun you could have with that one. Get in now while the gettin' is good, I say.

I'll leave you with this...I need to research this expedition a bit as you know I love me some expedition stories. Never heard of it before but sounds very interesting.

Oh, one more final note and then I'll stop bothering all of you nice people. Next Tuesday is the summer solstice which is always a huge deal up here. Even better this year as the longest day of the year will be accompianed by a full moon...last time that's happened was 70 years ago and won't happen again for another 70 years. Yes, the celestial/zodiac weirdos are definitely going to be out for this one. Sounds cool though, full sun and full moon up in these latitudes at the same time, should present some good photo ops. Don't worry, I'll snap a few pics of the weirdos too for your enjoyment.

Take care all, good night from the land of midnight sun.