Finger Lake is a 362-acre stocked recreational lake in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, sitting between Wasilla and Palmer just west of the Trunk Road and Bogard Road intersection. Homes on and near the lake offer year-round water recreation — rainbow trout and Arctic char fishing, canoeing on the Seven-Mile Canoe Trail to Wasilla Lake, and winter ice fishing — roughly a 44-mile drive from Anchorage. Because it is in the Mat-Su Borough rather than the Municipality of Anchorage, buyers face a different rule set: nearly all properties are on private well and septic, there is no Anchorage-style COSA certificate required to sell, and the borough has historically not enforced a residential building code. That combination makes a private well test, a septic inspection, and an independent home inspection the core of any luxury purchase here.
Finger Lake is one of those Mat-Su addresses that surprises Anchorage buyers the first time they tour it. It is close — a straight shot up the highway — yet it feels like a genuine lake retreat, with a productive fishery out the back door and a chain of connected lakes to paddle. What most first-time Valley buyers do not anticipate is that crossing from the Municipality of Anchorage into the Matanuska-Susitna Borough changes the rulebook underneath the transaction. The lake life sells itself; the due diligence is where a local who has watched this Valley grow earns their keep.
- Finger Lake is a 362-acre lake in the Mat-Su Borough between Wasilla and Palmer, about 0.7 mile west of the Trunk Road and Bogard Road intersection.
- The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has stocked the lake annually since 1953; it holds rainbow trout, Arctic char, and Arctic grayling, plus winter ice fishing.
- The lake is the south end of the Seven-Mile Canoe Trail, which connects by water and portage to Wasilla Lake.
- Mat-Su boat rules apply: motors need mufflers and cowlings, no motor use 11 pm–8 am, and a no-wake zone within 100 feet of shore.
- Roughly 93% of Mat-Su Borough households are on private on-site septic — well and septic due diligence is essential.
- Unlike Anchorage, the Mat-Su Borough requires no COSA-style certificate to sell and has historically not enforced a residential building code.
- Finger Lake is roughly 44 driving miles from Anchorage; plan for real commute variability, not just the free-flow drive time.
What Makes Finger Lake a Distinctive Place to Own a Home?
Finger Lake earned its name in 1898 from Captain Edwin Glenn, who thought a projecting point of land made the lake look like an outstretched finger on his survey map — it is not, technically, a glacial finger lake at all. What it is, for a homeowner, is one of the most productive small fisheries in the Valley. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the lake has been stocked annually since 1953 and is the largest stocked lake in the Mat-Su, carrying rainbow trout, Arctic char, and Arctic grayling. That translates to something rare in a luxury purchase: a recreational amenity that works twelve months a year, from open-water fishing and paddling in summer to ice fishing once the ice sets in winter.
The lake also anchors the south end of the Seven-Mile Canoe Trail. Per Alaska State Parks and USGS place records, that route connects Finger Lake through to Wasilla Lake by water and a single portage at the north end — a chain-of-lakes amenity that most standalone Mat-Su lakes simply do not have. Unlike a lake dominated by wake boats and jet skis, Finger Lake carries Mat-Su Borough motorized-use restrictions: boat motors must have mufflers, cowlings, and exhaust systems, no motors may operate from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am, and a no-wake zone is enforced within 100 feet of shore. For a luxury buyer, those rules are a feature, not a limitation — they protect the quiet, glassy-water evenings that make a lakefront home worth the premium.
| Attribute | Finger Lake / Wasilla (Mat-Su Borough) |
|---|---|
| Location | Between Wasilla & Palmer, ~0.7 mi west of Trunk/Bogard Rd |
| Lake size & fishery | 362 acres; stocked annually since 1953 (rainbow trout, Arctic char, grayling) |
| Water & sewer | Private well & septic (~93% of Mat-Su households) |
| Point-of-sale certificate | No COSA required (Mat-Su has no Anchorage-style ordinance) |
| Building code | Historically not enforced borough-wide |
| Commute to Anchorage | ~44 driving miles via Glenn & Parks Hwys |
Do Finger Lake Homes Use Well and Septic — and How Should Buyers Handle It?
Almost all of them do. The Mat-Su Borough is overwhelmingly on private on-site systems — the borough's own regional wastewater studies report that roughly 93% of households rely on private septic. On a lakefront lot, that matters more than it does on a dry hillside parcel, because a high water table and the surrounding soils directly govern what kind of on-site system a property can support. Under Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation rules, difficult sites with poor soils or high groundwater can require an engineered alternative system — a mound, pressure-distribution, or drip design — that must be designed by an engineer and approved by DEC before construction, rather than a simple conventional gravity system.
The practical buyer move is to make the well and septic verification part of your offer, not an afterthought. That means a private well flow-rate and water-quality test and a full septic inspection, ideally with the system's as-built drawing on file with the borough. Sellers on the Valley side who test early avoid the classic deal-killer: discovering a failing drain field during escrow, when a replacement system is both costly and time-consuming to design, permit, and install.
How Is Buying at Finger Lake Different From Buying Inside the Municipality of Anchorage?
This is the single most important thing an Anchorage buyer needs to understand before touring the Valley, and it is the reason a knowledgeable agent matters here. The Municipality of Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough are two different governing bodies with two different rulebooks.
Inside Anchorage, the Municipality requires a Certificate of On-Site Systems Approval — a COSA — before title can transfer on any property served by a private well or septic. Per the Municipality of Anchorage, that ordinance has been in place since 1998, and the engineering firm that performs the testing notes the MOA charges $600 to review the paperwork and issue the certificate. The Mat-Su Borough has no borough-wide equivalent. There is no mandatory point-of-sale system certificate for a Finger Lake home.
The same divergence applies to construction. As multiple Alaska permitting sources confirm, Alaska has no statewide residential building code for structures of three units or fewer, and code enforcement exists only where a local government adopts it. The Municipality of Anchorage runs the state's most active building-code program; the Mat-Su Borough, which includes Wasilla and Palmer, has historically not enforced a residential building code. That is not a reason to avoid the Valley — it is a reason to inspect. The market itself does the enforcing here through lenders, insurers, and buyer inspections, so a thorough independent home inspection carries the weight that a permit office carries in town.
What the Mat-Su rulebook gives you
- No mandatory COSA certificate or municipal fee to sell
- Fewer permitting layers on custom builds and additions
- Generally larger lots and more privacy than in-town lakefront
- Lower cost-of-entry per waterfront foot than the Anchorage Bowl
What it puts on the buyer
- You order well & septic testing yourself — no automatic backstop
- No code-enforcement office verified the original build
- An independent home inspection is essential, not optional
- A longer, weather-variable commute to Anchorage jobs
How Far Is the Commute From Finger Lake to Anchorage?
Finger Lake is on the Wasilla side of the Valley, roughly 44 driving miles from Anchorage via the Glenn Highway and the George Parks Highway. In free-flowing conditions, the Wasilla-to-Anchorage drive is commonly cited at about 45 to 50 minutes. The reality for a daily commuter is more nuanced: the City of Wasilla has publicly noted that peak commute times have historically run closer to 90 minutes, which is exactly why state highway-widening projects and a commuter-rail study have targeted bringing that number down. Alaska Railroad also runs a daily train between Wasilla and Anchorage, and Valley Transit operates commuter bus service, so there are alternatives to driving.
Waterfront lots on a stocked, canoe-trail-connected lake are a finite resource in the Valley — the shoreline was platted long ago and does not expand. That scarcity, combined with Finger Lake's year-round fishery and its position between the Valley's two largest cities, is what supports a luxury premium here relative to interior Wasilla-Palmer parcels. Specific list prices and days-on-market move with the season and the market; for a current read on any address, ask for a tailored analysis rather than relying on a headline figure.
Thinking of Selling on Finger Lake? What Drives Value Here
If you own on or near Finger Lake, your value story is different from an interior Valley home, and it is worth telling deliberately. The shoreline itself — usable frontage, a dock, a cleared water sightline, and the quiet the borough's motor rules protect — is the headline. Buyers touring Valley lakefront consistently pay for genuine water access and privacy, and just as consistently discount a lot where the "lake view" is really a distant glimpse across a marsh.
Two seller moves matter most here. First, test your well and septic early. Because the Mat-Su Borough imposes no COSA requirement, a seller who proactively supplies a recent well flow test, water-quality result, and septic inspection removes the single biggest source of buyer hesitation on a rural-systems property. Second, present the home so its finishes and light read as intentional — this is where I lean on a degree in interior design and a career in furnishings to help sellers stage a lake home so the water, not the clutter, is the first thing a buyer sees. For a specific number, the next step is a valuation keyed to your exact lot and shoreline. Get your Mat-Su area home value to start.
- Alaska Department of Natural Resources, Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation — Finger Lake State Recreation Site (location, boat-motor restrictions, boat launch, regional headquarters).
- Alaska Department of Fish and Game — Finger Lake boating & angler access (47-acre state-site project area, annual stocking since 1953, species, largest stocked lake in the Mat-Su).
- USGS Geographic Names Information System / Finger Lake references — lake surface area (~362 acres), naming history, and Seven-Mile Canoe Trail connection to Wasilla Lake.
- Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Regional Wastewater and Septage Study — ~93% of borough households on private septage systems.
- Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, Engineering Support & Plan Review — on-site (septic) systems, engineered alternative systems for difficult soils/high groundwater.
- Municipality of Anchorage, On-Site Water & Wastewater / COSA guidelines — COSA required for title transfer since 1998 (contrast with Mat-Su); AMC 15.65.
- C&M Engineering (Anchorage COSA process) — review-and-issue fee guidance; verify the current $600 COSA fee directly with the Municipality of Anchorage.
- Alaska building-permit references / Matanuska-Susitna Borough Development Services — no statewide single-family residential building code; Mat-Su Borough lack of borough-wide residential building code enforcement vs. the Municipality of Anchorage.
- City of Wasilla Transportation — historical ~90-minute peak commute, highway improvements, and commuter-rail feasibility studies (~44 driving miles to Anchorage).
Exploring Finger Lake and the Mat-Su lakes?
Let’s tour the waterfront and get the well, septic, and inspection questions answered before you write an offer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Finger Lake sits in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough between Wasilla and Palmer, about 0.7 mile west of the Trunk Road and Bogard Road intersection and roughly five to six miles west of Palmer. It is a 362-acre lake in the Cook Inlet lowlands, and the Finger Lake State Recreation Site on its shore also houses the regional headquarters for Alaska State Parks in the Mat-Su and Copper Basin area.
Yes. Finger Lake has been stocked by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game every year since 1953 and holds rainbow trout, Arctic char, and Arctic grayling, with ice fishing in winter. It is open to motorized boats, but the Mat-Su Borough enforces restrictions: motors must have mufflers and cowlings, no motor use is allowed from 11:00 pm to 8:00 am, and a no-wake zone applies within 100 feet of shore.
Most do. The Mat-Su Borough is overwhelmingly on private on-site systems — borough studies report that roughly 93% of households rely on private septic. Any luxury purchase at Finger Lake should include a private well flow-and-water-quality test and a septic inspection, since a lakeshore lot's high water table and soils directly affect what kind of on-site system a property can support under Alaska DEC rules.
No. The Municipality of Anchorage requires a Certificate of On-Site Systems Approval (COSA) — a roughly $600 municipal review after engineer testing — before transferring title on any well-or-septic property, under an ordinance in place since 1998. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough has no borough-wide equivalent point-of-sale certificate. In practice, lenders and buyers on the Mat-Su side commonly require a well and septic inspection anyway, so plan on one — you just arrange it through your lender and purchase agreement rather than a mandatory borough certificate.
Finger Lake is on the Wasilla side of the Mat-Su Valley, roughly 44 driving miles from Anchorage via the Glenn and George Parks highways. In free-flowing conditions the Wasilla-to-Anchorage drive is often cited around 45 to 50 minutes, but the City of Wasilla notes that peak commute times have historically run closer to 90 minutes, which is why highway-widening and commuter-rail studies have targeted reducing it. Budget for weather and rush-hour variability if you commute daily.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough has historically not enforced a borough-wide residential building code, unlike the Municipality of Anchorage. Alaska has no statewide residential building code for structures of three units or fewer, so enforcement exists only where a local government adopts one. That makes an independent home inspection especially important on a Mat-Su luxury purchase, because build quality is verified by the market — inspection, lender, insurer — rather than a permit office. Building to code for seismic and snow load remains strongly advisable in Southcentral Alaska.
Finger Lake is the south end of the Seven-Mile Canoe Trail, a water-and-portage route that connects through to Wasilla Lake, with the only portage at the north end of Finger Lake. For a lakefront owner it means paddling access to a connected chain of lakes right from your own shoreline, which is a genuine amenity that few Mat-Su lakes offer.