The Glenn Highway and Tok Cutoff

Following another round of COVID tests in Anchorage on our way north from The Kenai Peninsula, we officially marked the beginning of our very long drive back to California to return the truck and trailer to Greg. The Glenn Highway and Tok Cutoff is the principal route connecting the Alaska Highway to Anchorage, a 328 mile/528 kilometer stretch of stunning mountain ranges and glaciers spanning the Alaskan Interior’s eastern section. Alaska is full of breathtaking natural scenery, but I think the Glenn Highway and Tok Cutoff was the most picturesque of the drives we undertook during our time up north.

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The trailer needed a little attention, so we had a quick stop at Greatland and Machine in Palmer before we were underway. The guys at Greatland were legends: they had us back on the road in 30 minutes after a couple of quick welding jobs (and also happily accepted payment in fish [their choice]!).

The section of the Glenn Highway from Palmer all the way to Eureka Summit was quite stunning: the towering peaks of the Chugach Mountains bordered the highway to the south with views appeared to go on forever. We crossed river after river flowing from the glacier-covered mountains, and enjoyed a quick lunch stop and hike at the base of Matanuska Glacier. The area around the glacier at Glacier Point offered everything from hiking to river rafting, could have definitely killed some time in this part of Alaska if we didn’t have a plane to catch to Europe.

The Glenn Highway finished at Glenallen, where we picked up the Tok Cutoff towards Tok and eventually the Canadian border. As had become practice for me during our travels through Alaska, anytime we were driving I’d always look ahead for breweries on our route. One popped up in the remote Alaskan Interior town of Gakona – population 208 – and it was going to be perfect timing for an afternoon froth so we added a stop. Google Maps told us we’d arrived at Gakona Brewing Company right in the middle of the highway, so it took some hunting to actually find the brewery. It ended up being in a shed behind a house along a windy gravel road through the spruce. The quiet brewmaster and his gregarious wife – transplants from New England – started the brewery a few years ago as a bit of a hobby that morphed into a business that now supplies lodges and outfitters across the eastern Alaskan Interior. The small tasting room in the couple’s barn was very quaint, the kids loved the popcorn machine and the custom wood bar made by the local school’s woodworking teacher was very impressive. (In Alaska “local” refers to anything within 50 miles/80 kilometers or so!) Their beers needed a little work, but both Lisa and I really enjoyed the stout (which we both likened more to a dark ale than a stout). A great spot to break up the drive, the matriarch of the house was an excellent conversationalist, we could have chatted with her all day. She used to teach at the local school in Chistochina, where she was telling us that temperatures below -50°F/-46°C result in school closures. At that temperature with no wind, skin exposed to the air becomes frostbitten in under five minutes. If it’s below -20°F/-17°C they just cancel outdoor recess. In California, school gets canceled when there’s smoke in the air from a fire more than a hundred miles away.

Our last night in Alaska was spent at the Red Eagle Lodge in Chistochina, an excellent spot to lay our heads alongside the Tok Cutoff. One of our favorite campsites in Alaska for sure, if you ever find yourself transiting along the Tok Cutoff I highly recommend a night at Red Eagle. Run by an elderly couple – Richard and Judy – it was an immaculately-kept lodge and campground offering everything from tent camping through glamping tents to self-contained log cabins. There was also a brilliantly restored old school bus that one could rent for the night: queen-sized bed, wood-paneled kitchen and full lounge included. Oh, and the bath house, OMG: the best campground toilets and showers in all of Alaska, without question! Richard supplied us with endless split firewood for a campfire under the midnight sun and also gave us a tour of the runway on the southern edge of the lodge. His Cessna 182 was great to have a look through: full traditional instrumentation – no screens – with a lot of the paint peeled off, but still flightworthy and an excellent example of an old Alaskan Cessna. Richard had some great stories of flying all over the Interior and, to be honest, I think he was happy to have someone to chat with other than his wife: traffic along the Tok Cutoff had been almost nonexistent since the Canadian government clamped down on tourism, so our visit was a bit of a welcome surprise for him!

From Red Eagle Lodge we refueled one last time in Tok and then motored across the frost heave-ridden Alaska Highway back to Alcan Border. What an amazing month! Just so much to do in Alaska, we could have easily killed another month with more adventures south to Valdez and also over to McCarthy and its glaciers along the Richardson Highway. But Europe is calling, and it’s a very long drive back to California.