El Capitan Campground
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 15:39 UTC
- A night
- $15From, per site
- Sites
- 3All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 4 notices
In the agency’s own words
This waterfront campground offers a scenic view of the beautiful El Capitan Passage. This site has access to fishing, hunting, kayaking, hiking, caving and marine dock. It provides a remote, scenic setting for recreation and relaxation on the Tongass National Forest. Keep reading
Recreation
The El Capitan Campground is nearby many opportunities Prince of Wales island has to offer. Salmon fishing is popular during the summer months as well as fall deer hunting, beach combing and other marine sports including paddle craft and sea kayaking. The nearby El Capitan Cave offers guided tours during the summer season and is the longest mapped cave in Alaska at over two miles.
Facilities
There is access to an accessible outhouse as well as a nearby covered picnic pavillion and marine dock.
Natural Features
The El Capitan Campground is in an area of high geologic interest including the El Cap Cave . The surrounding forest boasts old growth species such as yellow cedar, red cedar, hemlock, and Sitka spruce. There is abundant wildlife viewing for both aquatic and terrestrial species including Sitka black tail deer, black bear, harbor seals, otters and many fish species. Prince of Wales Island has runs of every salmon species except chinook as well as populations of cutthroat trout and Dolly Varden.
Nearby Attractions
Prince of Wales Island Visitor Guide can be found on the Prince of Wales Chamber of Commerce website .
What the agency tells you
No hookups available
Roads may be under construction
Click here for more information on the Tongass National Forest
Everything else this campground posts · 1
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
- 3
- Hookups
- 3 electric
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Around the campground
- On the water
- Beach
- Beachcombing
- Berry Picking
- Caving
- Hunting
- Picnicking
- Water access
- Wildlife viewing
6 of 6 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:39 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 13
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $15 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 15:39 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
3 sites
All 3 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. 3 of the 3 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
El Capitan CabinTongass National Forest · 0.1 mi
Red Bay Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 5.4 mi
Salmon Bay Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 8.5 mi
Shipley Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 8.5 mi
Sarkar Lake Cabin15 mi
Barnes Lake Cabin17 miEl Capitan Campground can be reached by vehicle, boat, or plane. By road, follow Forest Service Road 20 to Forest Service Road 15 and take a left for about a mile (1.6 km) to the cave. Watch for signs. From both Thorne Bay and Craig is an estimated 3-hour drive. There is a Forest Service dock for use by boats and planes, but they should not be left unattended. No boats over 24' are allowed. Boats over 24' will need to anchore out and skiff in.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Whale Pass, 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
El Capitan 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 →