Bartlett Cove Campground
This is how it should work.
- Right now
- OpenThe agency lists it open
- Sites
- 3333 of them walk-up
- Season
- Year-roundOpen year-round
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there
In the agency’s own words
The National Park Service maintains a free walk-in campground in Bartlett Cove. The campground features bear-proof food caches, a fire-pit and warming shelter (with firewood provided) located in a very scenic setting along the shore, 1/4 mile south of the Bartlett Cove dock. Stays are limited to 14 days
Facilities
- Toilets
- Composting Toilets - year round
- Drinking water
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- Night sky · 100th darkest of 280 in AK
- Bortle 1
Nothing to book, just show up
One of 1,623 federal campgrounds where the site still goes to whoever pulls in first. Get there before noon on a summer weekend.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
Every line of the receipt · 3
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 4
rules read Sep 7, 2026 · record Aug 23, 2026 · How we know all this
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Gustavus, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 33°F, day 47°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 21°F, below freezing. Bring a bag rated colder than that, and expect ice in the water bottle.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or more
A normal is the 1991-2020 average for the month, not a forecast: about half of all Julys are colder than the July line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
who answers for it
Who answers for this land

Bartlett Cove Campground is in Alaska’s at-large congressional district. Its representative, Nick Begich (R), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: F. See every public-lands vote →




