Crescent Lake 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 16:16 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 14 notices
In the agency’s own words
Elodea has been found in Crescent Lake in 2023. Please stop aquatic hitchikers and use clean, drain, dry methods to prevent the spread of elodea. For more information on elodea. Crescent Lake Cabin is a rustic cabin on beautiful Crescent Lake, providing access to great fishing, hunting, hiking and wildlife viewing opportunities. This site can be accessed by hiking, biking, skiing, horseback, snowmobile and floatplane. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Fishing in Crescent Lake is very popular for grayling. A rowboat with oars is available at the cabin, however, life jackets and fishing equipment are not provided. High winds could present a danger to anyone on the lake. In season, visitors hunt for moose, black and brown bears and Dall sheep. Hiking, horseback riding, cross country skiing and snowshoeing are also popular activities. There is extreme avalanche danger on the Crescent Creek Trail in winter and early spring. The primitive trail around Crescent Lake crosses several avalanche chutes and should not be used in the winter.
Facilities
The log cabin has bunk space for six and a maximum occupancy of eight people. It is equipped with counter space, table, benches and a wood stove for heat. A splitting maul and hand saw are available. An outhouse is also provided. There is no electricity, potable water, mattresses, bedding, cooking utensils or cut firewood at the cabin. Visitors should bring sleeping bags and pads, a cook stove, cooking gearandfood. Water taken from the lakes or streams should be treated or boiled before consumption. All garbage and food must be packed out.
Natural Features
The cabin is located south of Sterling Highway on the Crescent Lake Trail. It sits at the northwest end of Crescent Lake, at an elevation of about 1,450 feet. The surrounding area is close to the tree line, affording scenic views of nearby mountains. In addition to avalanche danger, high winds may sweep across the lake, causing danger for small boats and planes. For information on access and regulations pertaining to this cabin, trail conditions, safety precautions and outdoor safety and ethics , please contact the Seward District office.
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.
This is the Crescent Lake Cabin located on the west side of Crescent Lake, not the Crescent Saddle Cabin located on the south central shore of Crescent Lake.
Everything else this campground posts · 11
The Crescent Lake Trail is closed to horse/pack stock from April 1 to June 30, and it is closed to motorized vehicles from May 1 to Nov. 30; the entire primitive trail is not recommended for small children.
There is no source of fresh water near the cabin; guests must bring their own, or boil or treat water taken from lakes or streams.
Use of this cabin by a commercial operator, such as an outfitter or guide, is not allowed.
All garbage and food must be packed out.
It is unlawful to use a public recreation cabin without a valid cabin reservation.
Occupying a Public Recreation cabin with more than eight individuals per cabin for each permitted day is prohibited.
Camping, pitching tents, or staying overnight within 300 feet of any public recreation use cabin is prohibited unless you have a valid cabin reservation.
It is prohibited to hitch, tether, or hobble any saddle or pack animal including dog teams, within 200 feet of an established trail, water source, or developed recreation site, including Forest Service recreation cabins.
Camping and/ or occupying any one Public Recreation Use Cabin for a period longer than seven consecutive days by any person or group including but not limited to family members, members of the same household, and members of the same camping party within a 30 day period, and three consecutive days May 15 to August 31.
Learn more about Chugach 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “An outhouse is also provided.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Biking
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
- Winter sports
Full this Saturdayread 16:16 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 16:16 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 19
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 16:16 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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.
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 CRESCENT LAKE CABIN | S02 | cabin nonelectric | 180 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Crescent Saddle CabinChugach National Forest · 3.2 miCrescent Creek CampgroundChugach National Forest · 3.9 miQuartz Creek CampgroundChugach National Forest · 5.3 mi
Trail RiverChugach National Forest · 7.8 mi
Trail River CabinChugach National Forest · 7.9 mi
Ptarmigan CreekChugach National Forest · 8.7 miFrom milepost 45 on Sterling Highway,take Quartz Creek road 3.2 miles to the Crescent Creek trailhead. The cabin is 6.5 miles down the Crescent Creek Trail.
Winter travelers need to be able to evaluate avalanche and over-ice travel conditions. The trail is closed to horse/pack stock from April 1 to June 30, and is closed to motor vehicles between May 1 and Nov. 30.
Refer to USGS maps Seward B7, C7 and C8. Maps are available online or by calling the Seward Ranger District at 907-288-3178.
Learn more about Carter Lake and Crescent Creek.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Moose Pass, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 31°F, day 41°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 16°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 · 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
Crescent Lake 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 Crescent Lake Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Crescent Lake Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crescent Lake 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. Crescent Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crescent Lake 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 Crescent Lake Cabin (Chugach 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 Crescent Lake Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Crescent Lake Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crescent Lake 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. Crescent Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crescent Lake 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 Crescent Lake Cabin (Chugach 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 Crescent Lake Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Crescent Lake Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Crescent Lake 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. Crescent Lake Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Crescent Lake 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 Crescent Lake Cabin (Chugach National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com