Jack 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
Jack Bay Cabin is located at the east end of Jack Bay in the Chugach National Forest. Visitors to the cabin will find many opportunities for recreation and relaxation in the vicinity. Access to the site is by float plane or boat only. The flight is typically 15 minutes from Valdez or 30 minutes from Cordova. It is 20 miles from Valdez by boat and 70 miles from Cordova. Tides affect access to this cabin, so it is important to check local tide information. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Anglers will find good pink salmon fishing steps away from the cabin's front door. Coho fishing is good later in the year in nearby creeks. Razor clams, eel and crabs can be found while beachcombing at low tide. Boating is the most efficient way to explore Jack Bay. Otherwise, viewing harbor seals and sea otters from the front deck is a fantastic pastime. Hunters can take advantage of a long hunting season in the surrounding national forest. Bear season occurs during spring and fall, while deer season begins in late summer and lasts through late fall.
Facilities
The cabin is 12-by-14 feet and equipped with wooden bunks that sleep up to six guests. It is furnished with a table, benches, wood and oil stoves, a rainwater catchment barrel and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water, electricity, cut firewood or heating oil. Visitors must bring their own supply of drinking water, firewood and #1 stove oil for the oil stove. Visitors must bring food, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, a cook stove, matches, cooking gear, lanterns or flashlights, toilet paper, a first aid kit and garbage bags. All trash and food must be packed out, and visitors are expected to clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
Jack Bay is located southeast of the Valdez Narrows, hemmed in by steep mountains. The cabin sits at the edge of a grassy clearing overlooking the bay. A thick temperate rainforest of spruce and hemlock backs up to the cabin, with an understory of shrubs, fern and moss-covered logs. From mountains rising from shoreline, waterfalls surge from ice fields and glaciers. Wildlife in the area abounds, including Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goat and brown bear (learn more about bear safety ).
Nearby Attractions
Jack Bay State Marine Park is located 15 miles from Valdez, southeast of the Valdez Narrows. The uplands of the park consist of alder, muskeg, salt marsh and old-growth forest of spruce and hemlock. The northern arm of Jack Bay within the marine park becomes shallow a quarter-mile out and caution is recommended. Although the bay can be used as a fair weather anchorage, it is not protected. Access to the area is by boat.
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
Inclement weather conditions may cause an extension of your trip during any time of the year and winter access can be difficult due to snow and ice conditions; bring extra supplies to last 2-5 days
Everything else this campground posts · 9
Water is not available at this facility; visitors must bring their own for drinking, cooking, and cleaning
Before digging for clams, read up on paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and current regulations for size and quantity limits; cases of PSP from eating razor clams are relatively rare, but they have been reported in Alaska
Guests must bring their own cooking stove
All garbage and food must be packed out
Same day reservations are allowed for this cabin
Forest Order (10-04-00-14-47) that limits occupying/renting a public use rental cabin for more than seven consecutive days by any group or person
Contact the Cordova Ranger District at (907) 424-7661 for more detailed information about safety precautions
Learn more about Chugach National Forest and Prince William Sound
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
- Pit Toilets
- “…catchment barrel and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water,…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “The cabin does not have running water, electricity, cut firewood or heating oil.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Waterfall, Creek, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
1 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
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 · 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.
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 JACK BAY CABIN | C11 | cabin nonelectric | 166 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Double Bay CabinChugach National Forest · 37 mi
Shelter Bay Cabin40 mi
Power Creek CabinChugach National Forest · 42 mi
Coghill Lake CabinChugach National Forest · 46 mi
Hook Point CabinChugach National Forest · 46 miAccess to the site is by float plane or boat only. The flight is typically 15 minutes from Valdez or a 30 minutes from Cordova. To travel by boat is 20 miles from Valdez and 70 miles from Cordova. Tides influence travel to the cabin. Click here for local tide information.
Inclement weather conditions may cause an extension of your trip during any time of the year and winter access can be difficult due to snow and ice conditions. Guests should bring extra supplies to last 2-5 days Please contact the Cordova Ranger District at (907) 424-7661 prior to arrival for more detailed information about safety precautions.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Valdez, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 34°F, day 45°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
Jack 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 →