Berners Bay Cabin
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:03 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 12 notices
In the agency’s own words
Berners Bay Cabin is situated near the mouth of the Antler River on scenic Berners Bay, an area that is popular with locals and tourists alike. The cabin has a peak season from late April through late September, but it is open year-round for relaxation, sightseeing, and recreation. The site can be accessed by float plane, boat or kayak, depending on conditions. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Berners Bay offers opportunities for saltwater fishing and crabbing, sea kayaking, beachcombing and wildlife watching. Kayakers and boaters should check tide charts prior to any excursion, since parts of the bay may be too shallow during low tide. Click here for more information. Berry pickers can harvest the abundant blueberries that grow around the cabin in the summer. Mountain goat, moose and bear hunting are possible in designated seasons with the proper permit. A primitive trail exists that travels north from the cabin. The one mile trail starts at the woodshed and leads to an ocean overlook under a large waterfall.
Facilities
This pan-abode style cabin is 13 ft. by 14 ft. and sleeps five people with three single bunks and one double bunk. Visitors with a cabin reservation may use the tent camping locations around the cabin, as needed. It also has a table with benches, oil stove for heat (#1 stove oil), bucket and shovel, broom and dustpan, splitting maul, cold storage box and an outhouse. A mooring float is provided for visitors with a cabin reservation only. This mooring goes dry at a 0' tide but anchoring locations are available as well. A campfire ring is located outside. A sandy beach is available in front of the cabin at low and medium tides, which is ideal for kayak launching and float plane drop-off. Water and electricity are not provided. Water is available from a nearby stream, but visitors should be sure to treat water before drinking or cooking with it ( water safety tips ). It is recommended that visitors bring their own water supply. Heating oil is not supplied by the Forest Service. In addition to bringing a supply of #1 stove oil (a gallon per day on low setting), visitors should pack sleeping bags, sleeping pads, a cooking stove, lanterns or flashlights, cookware, plates, utensils, food, toilet paper, garbage bags, a fire extinguisher and fire starter. Visitors are expected to pack out trash, empty the cabinets and clean the cabin before leaving ( click here for more cabin details).
Natural Features
Four rivers drain into Berners Bay, including the Antler and Berners Rivers. The cabin sits just south of a waterfall and offers excellent views of both the Antler and Berners River deltas, as well as Lions Head Mountain. Natural features in this area include old-growth hemlock and Sitka spruce forest, the snow-capped Chilkat Mountains, saltwater estuaries, freshwater marshes, meadows and cottonwood floodplains. Each spring, the spawning of herring and euchalon (hooligan) in Berners Bay attracts huge populations of bald eagles, brown and black bears, harbor seals, humpback whales and endangered Steller sea lions ( bear safety information ). Moose, wolves, deer, mountain goats and a variety of waterfowl also make their home here.
What the agency tells you
This facility is located in an extremely remote and wild area; before making a reservation, become aware of bear, water, and weather safety (including cold)
Recreating in Alaska can present both obvious and hidden dangers; please be aware of your surroundings and be prepared for extended stays due to occasionally poor weather
Water is not available at the cabin; guests must bring their own water supply or treat water from natural sources
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Please pack out all trash and food
Use of this cabin by a commercial operator, such as an outfitter or guide, is not allowed
Be sure to secure small watercraft above high tide line; dinghy or 450-foot shore tie rope advised for anchoring to buoy
Buoy anchor awash at 0 foot low tides; tilt up sterndrive or outboard
Please collect dead/down wood only for campfires
High levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) have been reported in this area
Click here for more information about Tongass National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Prevent the spread of tree-killing pests by purchasing firewood near your destination and burning it on-site. For more information visit dontmovefirewood.org.
The invasive European Green Crab (EGC) has been found in southern Southeast Alaska and is suspected to be in more locations on the Tongass National Forest. Please actively look for and report EGC to help map the distribution and contribute to management.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- Toilet on all 1 of this campground's campsite records
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “It is recommended that visitors bring their own water supply.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, River, Creek, Beach, Coast, Meadow
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
2 of 2 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:03 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
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We read recreation.gov once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time a site in your window is free for the nights you asked for.
Scanners that check every few minutes exist, and most of them charge. This one is free, it reads the same calendar, and it won’t always be first.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
Who keeps the booking fee
The agency’s own policy text says the reservation fee and the cancellation processing fee are “retained by the reservation service contractor”, and that a campground concessionaire will decline to refund them because “they did not receive these fees”. Recreation.gov is run under contract by Booz Allen Hamilton. What share of your booking fee the contractor keeps isn’t published in any federal dataset we can read, so we print no number for it. Our reporting on the contract →
How we know this receipt · 5
recreation.gov availability, read 16:03 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 1 of the 1 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| AREA BERNERS BAY CABIN | J14 | cabin nonelectric | 1,292 ft | $45 |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Eagle Glacier CabinTongass National Forest · 15 mi
Windfall Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 20 mi
Peterson Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 24 mi
John Muir CabinTongass National Forest · 26 miMendenhall Lake Campground28 mi
Sítʼ Yá Hítʼ CabinTongass National Forest · 28 miLocated 37 miles northwest of Juneau, the cabin is on shore of Berners Bay, 8 miles north from boat launch at Echo Cove at mile 40 Glacier Highway.
Access is by boat, kayak and float plane only. Consult tide charts, as some parts of the bay become extremely shallow at low tide. Click here for more information. A sand beach is available at low-medium tides for float plane drop-off.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Juneau, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 47°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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
what threatens it · who answers for it
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Berners Bay Cabin 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 →