Eagles Nest Campground
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 29 of the next 30 nights read 14:45 UTC
- A night
- $8–$16Across the site types the agency prices
- Sites
- 12All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 5 notices
In the agency’s own words
Eagles Nest Campground is located on Prince of Wales Island in a temperate rainforest surrounded by muskeg and Balls Lake. Visitors enjoy viewing wildlife, hiking, fishing, canoeing and kayaking. This campground is situated on Prince of Wales Island, the third largest island in the U.S., on the shores of Balls Lake, eighteen miles west of Thorne Bay. Keep reading
Recreation
An interpretive trail parallels the lake for approximately 1,800 feet, offering scenic views of the Thorne Mountains and surrounding foothills. Canoeing, kayaking and fishing are popular activities at Balls Lake. A canoe ramp is located on the lakeshore. Sockeye salmon, wildflowers and industrious beavers are common sights in and around the lake. The 2.5-mile Balls Lake Trail lets visitors hike around the lake, where swans, kingfisher and ducks are often seen, along with an array of riparian areas.
Facilities
The campground offers single and double-family sites. Picnic tables and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets.
Natural Features
The campground is situated near Control Creek and Balls Lake, within the Tongass National Forest, which covers nearly 17 million acres in southeast Alaska and is the largest forest in the national forest system. The Tongass surrounds the Inside Passage, the network of waterways that buffers the jagged Alaskan Coast and a cluster of coastal islands. The Tongass offers visitors a chance to view wildlife, including eagles, bears and spawning salmon. Expansive vistas of fjords, glaciers and mountain peaks abound. Much of the forest is a temperate rainforest.
Nearby Attractions
A number of hiking trails and recreation sites are in the area.
What the agency tells you
Parking spurs are narrow and perpendicular to the campground road; large RVs may be difficult to back in
No hookups available
Roads may be under construction
Everything else this campground posts · 2
Click here for more information on 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 12 · 2 tent-only
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 99 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…and campfire rings are provided, as are vault toilets. Natural Features The campground is situated near…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 113th darkest of 280 in AK
- Bortle 1
Something open on 29 of the next 29 bookable nightsread 14:45 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBookedNot reservable
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rates for this season, $8–$16 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 14:45 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
12 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 12 mapped sitesAll 12 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. 12 of the 12 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.
| EAGL | 001 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 685 ft | 153 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 002 | tent only nonelectric | 144 ft | 63 ft | $8 | |
| EAGL | 003 | tent only nonelectric | 144 ft | 68 ft | $8 | |
| EAGL | 004 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 63 ft | 290 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 005 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 63 ft | 301 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 006 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 72 ft | 319 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 007 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 86 ft | 323 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 008 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 91 ft | 267 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 009 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 54 ft | 188 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 010 | standard nonelectric | 99 ft | 53 ft | 242 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 011 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 53 ft | 294 ft | $8–$16 |
| EAGL | 012 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 65 ft | 273 ft | $8–$16 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions
Where it is
Control Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 0.9 miEagles Nest CampgroundTongass National Forest · 1.6 mi
Black Bear Lake Cabin (Tongass National Forest, AK)Tongass National Forest · 9.9 mi
Salmon Lake Cabin Thorne BayTongass National Forest · 10 mi
Honker Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 10 miLake No. 3 CampgroundTongass National Forest · 11 miFrom Ketchikan, take the Alaska Marine Ferry to Hollis on Prince of Wales Island. From Hollis, take State Highway 924 to Klawock. From Klawock, take State Highway 929 to Control Lake Junction 18 miles and turn right. Continue on State Highway 929 for 2 miles. Campground is on the left.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Thorne Bay, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 40°F, day 52°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 30°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Eagles Nest 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 →