Pinnacle Mountain Lodge

We were driving back to Anchorage on the Glenn Highway after a sunny weekend of not catching fish on the Klutina River when we decided to stop and walk Goatboy for a bit. We were in a caravan with my mom's RV so we needed to find a place that is relatively easy to pull on and off of but that would still be interesting. We pulled into the Pinnacle Mountain Lodge mostly because they had a long, linear driveway and a collection of what I guess might be called tractor art.


The lodge is located about 20 miles east of Palmer, in a townsite called Chickaloon. Once part of the Mat-Su agricultural region, not much happens in Chickaloon nowadays and that is sort of the case with this lodge. It's quiet, out of the way, and easily overlooked but I think the owners prefer that.


Besides the tractor art, there was also all sorts of animals walking around: goats, alpacas, llamas, ducks, and geese. Inside, on the specials board, was an announcement that today one of the specials was a goat burger. Goat is a common meat in most parts of the world, but I rarely see it outside of some specific neighborhoods in Honolulu and the Southwest. I asked the lodge owner where her goat was from and she pointed out the window. It turns out this lodge produces much of the food they sell, including the goat, pork and bacon, poultry, and eggs. They also buy all their seasonal produce from people who live up the road from the lodge.


The burger was really good, and the bacon was definitly not mass-produced. They also bake excellent pies (we tried the key lime), and if you get there early they sell both chicken and duck eggs by the dozen, but they sell out quick. Everything far exceeded my expectations and I always like to frequent local food sources, and these folks seemed well connected and deliberate about what they are doing.


If you are heading out the Glenn Highway be sure to stop here. Next time I'm going to order breakfast; their biggest sellers is a hashbrown scramble called "The Valley Trash".