We Slept In A Wood Stove Cabin At Alaskan Stoves Campground In Tok, AK

We’ve done a lot of quirky things on our 50 state road trip so far, but I think the quirkiest place we’ve slept in was a wood stove cabin.

After leaving Dawson City where we drank a Sourtoe Cocktail (easily the most quirky thing we’ve had to drink!) and stopping in Chicken, AK, our next stop for the night was Alaskan Stoves Campground in Tok, AK – home of Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin. This accommodation was inspired by the Robert Service poem “The Cremation of Sam McGee” and is somewhere we knew we had to stay on our drive to Alaska.

It was a very fun experience – far more comfortable than I was anticipating and superb value to boot. Here’s more about what it’s like to sleep in this unusual wood stove cabin.

How To Book Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin

Shae came across the cabin a few years ago when looking for somewhere to stay the night on the way from Dawson City to Fairbanks. We’d bookmarked it and then booked it about a year before we wanted to stay.

We ended up making our reservation via Airbnb, but you can also contact Chris at Alaskan Stoves Campground by emailing info@alaskanstovescampground.com or calling 907-590-7363.

There’s only one wood stove cabin and due to its quirkiness and low price, it seems to get booked up quickly. It’s therefore worth trying to book a stay there as far in advance as you can.

How Much Does It Cost To Stay In Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin?

It costs $45 per night to stay in the wood stove cabin which accommodates up to two people (this was the cost in June 2024).

Something to bear in mind when booking via Airbnb is that Airbnb tacks on a service fee; this was only $6.35 which meant our total was $51.35 for the night. We’d bought Airbnb gift cards at a 15% discount, so our net cost was only $43.65. Even if we hadn’t bought them at a discount, I’d probably have just booked via Airbnb anyway for the convenience.

Is Alaskan Stoves Campground Pet-Friendly?

Yes, the campground – including Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin – are pet-friendly with no additional charge for having your dog with you. We stayed with our dog Truffles, so we appreciated not having to pay more for her seeing as the vast majority of hotels and Airbnbs that are pet-friendly do charge a fee when bringing your pup with you.

Where Is Alaskan Stoves Campground?

Alaskan Stoves Campground is in the small town of Tok (pronounced ‘toke’ rather than ‘tock’). If you’re driving in from Canada to the east, the campground will be on your left off Hwy 2; if you’re driving from the west of Tok (e.g. from Fairbanks) or from the south, the campground will be on your right.

The campground is listed on Google Maps, so it’s easy to get directions there too.

Checking In At Alaskan Stoves Campground

The campground is a self-serve campground. I’d not come across that before, although we’re not big campers either and so perhaps that’s something that’s common around the country.

There’s a large banner describing the different types of accommodation and their costs.

These are all first-come, first-served, so it’d be worth pre-booking if you’d like to have assurance of somewhere to stay there rather than rocking up on the day and hoping something is still available. When we stayed at the very beginning of June, there were still seemingly some camp and RV sites available, but I imagine it gets busier as the summer season goes on.

Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin – What It’s Like

The cabin is located slightly away from the main camping area, but only a very short walk (as in 1 minute or less) to the campground bathrooms and kitchen area.

There’s a parking space out front, with a picnic table and an actual wood fire stove.

The wood stove cabin you stay in is much larger than that though.

Despite seeing photos from its listing on Airbnb, it was more spacious-feeling inside than I’d been anticipating:

There was a futon bed and a couple of seats on either side of the cabin. There was a shelf on the left with towels, washcloths, etc. and a heater. On the right was another shelf which had a coffee maker, some bottles of water, a small TV and a selection of DVDs you could watch. Thankfully Backdraft and The Towering Inferno weren’t provided 😉

The flame decoration around the walls added some great ambience to the cabin too.

A clipboard provided more information about how to enjoy our stay…

…while a leaflet had details about what there was to do in Tok.

I took the following video to give you a quick walkthrough of the cabin.

You might be wondering what it was like actually sleeping in the wood stove cabin. The futon bed wasn’t bad; Shae found it a little less comfortable than I did, but the next morning the owner of the campground shared that he was going to be replacing the mattress that day, so hopefully it’ll be even more comfortable if you were to stay now.

During the day it was a lovely 71°F (22°C) outside, but the temperature dropped to 46°F (8°C) overnight. That meant it got chilly in there overnight, so Shae turned the heater on while I was down the road working (more about that later on). It took a while for things to heat up, but it eventually did a good job with keeping things warm and toasty in there. So much so that I had to turn the heater off in the morning as it was so warm. The metal cabin seemed to soak up the heat from the sun in the morning, so the roof of the cabin was radiating that too.

With Tok being so far north, it’s the land of the (almost) midnight sun in the summer. On the night we stayed, sunset was at 11:22pm, while sunrise the next morning was at 3:36am. I was therefore concerned about how bright the cabin might be because there was a window at the back of the cabin with curtains and ventilation grates at the entrance. The cabin stayed surprisingly dark though, so we slept well in that respect.

We don’t suffer from claustrophobia, so I can’t vouch for what it would be like staying in the wood stove cabin for people who do suffer from it. It didn’t feel too cramped for us though and certainly wasn’t coffin-like.

Dinner At Alaskan Stoves Campground

Before leaving Dawson City, we picked up some hot dogs and buns from the general store for dinner that night. Outside the cabin was a small wood stove grill, so we got that going with dried wood from the ground and a few pieces of paper towel from inside the cabin as kindling. We had our own lighter which we keep in our portable kitchen, but if you don’t have your own lighter or matches I suspect another camper would be happy to let you borrow theirs.

The campground had grilling utensils to use, so it was easy to cook our hot dogs safely on there.

I cooked all the hot dogs that night so that they could be finished off for breakfast the next morning, plus we gave half a sausage to Truffles to enjoy.

Alaskan Stoves Campground Amenities

The campground has a covered pavilion with an outdoor kitchen for all campground guests to use. There’s a mini fridge where you can store food, a microwave (perfect for reheating our hot dogs in the morning), a coffee maker and a sink. The fridge has beverages you can buy on the honor system (they’re $1 each).

The covered area also has a few small tables and chairs you can sit at if you don’t want to use the picnic table next to your campsite.

There are men’s and women’s bathrooms that require a code to enter. There’s a QR code on the door you can scan to get the code.

Inside the men’s bathroom there was one cubicle and one urinal, while the women’s bathroom had two cubicles.

In addition to two sinks, there were two showers in each of the bathrooms which had a good supply of hot water. One of the shower curtains in the men’s bathroom didn’t provide much in the way of privacy though.

In the bathrooms there was a sheet with some campground instructions/requests. As you can see, there’s also a laundry area which I’m sure is useful for some campground guests.

Towards the back of the campground there’s a large communal fire pit you can get going. We spent some time there eating s’mores and chatting to a lovely couple from Manitoba.

What’s Nearby?

The campground is next to Tok Junction Airport, a small airport that bush pilots and 40 Mile Air (a local charter airline) fly in and out of.

Just down the road are some gas stations and restaurants. Alaskan Stove Campgrounds doesn’t provide Wi-Fi access, so that’s something worth bearing in mind if that’s essential to you. One of the information forms at the campground mentioned Fast Eddy’s restaurant as being somewhere you could grab a bite to eat and use their internet.

I needed to work the night we were there, so I swung by Fast Eddy’s in the hope that I could get a drink and use their internet. They were only serving food though and we’d already had dinner. I therefore went 100 yards further down the road to Bears Den Lounge. We’d had someone in Whitehorse recommend Bears Den Lounge, so that worked out perfectly and they had Wi-Fi I could use. The music was very loud, so it’s not somewhere that you’d be able to have Zoom meetings, nor would it be ideal if you’d get distracted by that while trying to work. However, it didn’t bother me and I enjoyed the music they were playing for the most part, so I was fine.

Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin Certificate

Just before checking out the next morning, Chris (the owner) stopped by the cabin to give us our certificate for surviving the night in the stove. This came with a copy of The Cremation Of Sam McGee – the poem by Robert Service that the wood stove cabin is inspired by.

Final Thoughts

We had a fantastic stay in Sam McGee’s Wood Stove Cabin at Alaska Stoves Campground in Tok, AK. It’s superb value, was clean and comfortable and had good amenities.

Shae and I rejigged our plans for our drive back down from Alaska later this month and so will be staying in Tok again overnight. Unfortunately by the time we’d switched those plans the cabin was booked for the night, otherwise I’d have been more than happy to stay another night there.

If you decide to drive the Alaska Highway, I can highly recommend this wood stove cabin if you’d like a fun and quirky place to stay overnight.