Brents Beach Cabin
We don’t think it should be. Every campground should hold some sites for whoever drives up.Tell your representative →
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:23 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Brent's Beach Cabin is located on the eastern shore of Kruzof Island in Crab Bay in the Tongass National Forest, 15 miles northwest of Sitka, Alaska. The cabin is open year-round and makes an excellent base to experience this beautiful corner of Alaska. Fred's Creek Cabin is 5 miles south. The original A-frame cabin located at this site was donated by a former Forest Service district ranger in memory of his teenage son, Brent, who along with two friends, drowned in Sitka Sound while halibut fishing in the early 1970s. In 1985, the current cabin replaced the well-worn A-frame. This is a remote location. The cabin can be accessed only by boat or helicopter, weather permitting. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring many of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Visitors enjoy beachcombing, sunbathing and sculpting in the sands in front of the cabin, saltwater fishing in the bay and hunting deer in-season in the surrounding forest. Volcanic features are a 10-minute hike north of the cabin. Be sure to bring a compass. For information about fishing and hunting permits and seasons, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website.
Facilities
The one-room, Pan-abode-style cabin sleeps six and is furnished with two double plywood bunks and two single plywood bunks (no mattresses). The cabin includes a wood stove, axe or splitting mail, a table and benches, cooking counter, a broom and an outhouse toilet. Guests should bring sleeping bags and pads, a cooking stove, pots, pans, plates, utensils, food, toilet paper, a lantern, garbage bags, a fire extinguisher, fire starter, raingear and rubber boots. Water is available from the nearby inlet stream. Treat all water before using. It is recommended that visitors bring their own water. A mooring buoy is provided on a first-come, first-served basis for boat anchorage. It can be used by cabin visitors or general forest users. Cabin reservation does not include exclusive use of the buoy. Mooring buoys are configured using a 4200-lb concrete block with 90 feet of 7/8th-inch stud link chain. Mariners are responsible for determining how suitable an anchoring system is for the size of their craft. Click here for more cabin information and maps.
Natural Features
The cabin sits just inside timberline on a beautiful, sandy beach facing Crab Bay and is surrounded by a dense forest of spruce and hemlock. Brown bears frequent the area.
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
Cabin is not maintained in winter
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Local wave action on the beach may make landing dangerous or impossible; non-boaters or out-of-town visitors are encouraged to use the service of an experienced local boat operator
Treat or boil water before drinking
Firewood may be in short supply or temporarily out at any time of year
Pack out all food and garbage
For boat or air charters, contact the Sitka Convention and Visitors Bureau at 907-747-5940 or online
Learn more about the 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
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “The cabin includes a wood stove, axe or splitting mail, a table and benches, cooking counter, a broom and an outhouse toilet.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “It is recommended that visitors bring their own water.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
Full this Saturdayread 16:23 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:23 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t
Watch for a cancellation
Watch this campground
One email when a night opens, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
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.
Tell me when the season opens
Watch for the season to open
One email when the season goes on sale, plus More Than Just Parks dispatches. Unsubscribe any time.
We check once an hour, at 40 minutes past, and write the first time the agency has that season on sale.
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 · 14
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 · 4
recreation.gov availability, read 16:23 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
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA BRENTS BEACH CABIN | S09 | standard nonelectric | 1,073 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Freds Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 5.2 mi
Shelikof CabinTongass National Forest · 6.9 mi
North Beach CabinTongass National Forest · 7.5 mi
Starrigavan Campground and Day UseTongass National Forest · 7.5 mi
Starrigavan Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 7.7 mi
Allan Point CabinTongass National Forest · 9.6 miAccessible year round, weather permitting. Located 15 miles west of Sitka on the southeast shore of Kruzof Island. Access is 30 minutes by boat from Sitka. Helicopter landing on the beach is possible at lower tides. Refer to USGS topographic maps Sitka A-5, A-6.
Boat access can only occur at certain stages of the tide. Please check current conditions prior to your trip. Click here for more information.
Erratic and abnormally large waves have been reported on Kruzof Island at low slack tide. Avoid approaching the beach by boat and unloading while the tide is turning. Non-boaters or out-of-town visitors are encouraged to use a local charter boat operator.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sitka, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 42°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 32°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 Augusts are colder than the August line. The seven-day forecast above answers the other question.
The land, and who answers for it
what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Brents Beach 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 →
Who can change it · 3
Two offices, two different asks. The draft to the agency asks it to set aside a published share of the sites here for whoever drives up. The draft to Congress asks why that share is zero and presses for a published minimum at the campgrounds it funds.
- The member who votes the moneyNicholas J. Begich IIIU.S. Representative · Alaska, at-large
- Your senator, on the same appropriationDan SullivanU.S. Senator · Alaska
- Your senator, on the same appropriationLisa MurkowskiU.S. Senator · Alaska
Read the draft, or change the wording
For the camper who turned up, or tried to book, and couldn’t get in. Every draft is written from this campground’s own record (its agency, its unit, its site count and its own weekend) and the buttons above copy whichever wording is selected here.
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Brents Beach Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Brents Beach Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Brents Beach Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Brents Beach Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Brents Beach Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Brents Beach Cabin (Tongass National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Brents Beach Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Brents Beach Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Brents Beach Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Brents Beach Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Brents Beach Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Brents Beach Cabin (Tongass National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the question to the agency in writing, and to press for a published minimum share of walk-up sites across the campgrounds they fund.
Subject Walk-up camping at Brents Beach Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Brents Beach Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Brents Beach Cabin are reservable, and the agency's own record lists none held back for somebody who drives up. On Saturday, October 17, the one site recreation.gov was offering there was already booked. 1,623 of the 7,639 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Brents Beach Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Brents Beach Cabin. I’m asking you to put it to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: why is the share of first-come sites there zero, and what would a published minimum share cost? Please press for that minimum at the federal campgrounds you fund. The people who open these campgrounds, collect the fees and keep the water running are seasonal positions. At GS-5, base pay plus the government's own 36.25% benefit factor, one costs about $47,414 a year. One percent of the $13.3 billion the USS Gerald R. Ford cost to procure would pay for about 2,800 of them for a year. Both figures are the government's own (a Congressional Research Service report and an OPM pay table), and I’m glad to send them. Sent about Brents Beach Cabin (Tongass National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com