Kennel Creek Cabin (AK)
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 16:38 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Kennel Creek Cabin is located near Kennel Creek along the south shore of Freshwater Bay, on the northeast side of Chichagof Island. It offers visitors excellent opportunities for recreation and viewing scenery and wildlife. This is a primitive cabin with no electricity, indoor plumbing or cell phone coverage. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring their own amenities. The cabin is generally available year-round, depending on weather, and makes an excellent base for experiencing this corner of Alaska. For questions regarding cabin access and before driving to the cabin from Hoonah, please check in with the Hoonah Ranger District (430 Airport Road) during business hours or call 907-945-3631 for road conditions and cabin access. The cabin may be inaccessible via road for many months of the year. Keep reading
Recreation
The cabin has good access to hunting and both freshwater and saltwater fishing areas. For information about hunting and fishing permits and seasons, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website. A gravel beach in front of the cabin is suitable for landing and launching small boats. Tide tables should be consulted prior to any boating excursion. There is also a boat ramp and dock facility nearby.
Facilities
The 16 X 22-ft. milled cedar log cabin has a sleeping loft, balcony and deck. The cabin accommodates up to 8 people. There is one single over double bunk on the main floor and a full sleeping loft. Inside, the cabin features a food preparation counter, a sturdy wood table with 4 benches and a wood stove for heat. Outside there is a large picnic table, fire ring, vault toilet and firewood shelter. The first level of the cabin, the main deck, and vault toilet and picnic table are all accessible facilities for visitors with disabilities. Firewood is not provided; however, a small woodshed nearby allows visitors to store and keep firewood dry for use at the cabin. Cabin users must provide their own firewood. Other suggested items to bring are: water for drinking, cooking and cleaning; mattresses; cooking gear; sleeping bags; lanterns or flashlights; food; toilet paper; garbage bags; and fire starter. Rain gear and boots are also recommended. No dumpsters are available, so visitors are expected to pack out trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
The cabin rests on the south shoreline of Freshwater Bay. Views from the cabin’s balcony and deck overlook the bay and surrounding snow peaked mountains. The cabin is backed by dense evergreen forest. Kennel Creek, an anadromous fish stream flows into Freshwater Bay about 200 yards away. This area offers abundant wildlife, including whales, brown bear, deer, shorebirds and a variety of small mammals. Please learn about bear safety and precautions.
Nearby Attractions
The Bear Paw Lake Trail system is located approximately 4 miles northwest of the cabin on National Forest System road 8508.
What the agency tells you
This facility is located in a 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.
Bears frequent this area: Keep a clean camp; store all food and garbage in appropriate containers.
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Automobile access is not available during the winter months.
Firewood is NOT provided.
Commercial use of this cabin, such as outfitting & guiding, is not allowed.
The person holding the reservation must be at least 18 years of age, and must be a member of party using the cabin.
There are no pass discounts for Alaska cabin rentals.
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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…is a large picnic table, fire ring, vault toilet and firewood shelter. The first level of the cabin,…”
- Boat ramp
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Beach, Coast
- Auto Touring
- Beach Camping
- Beachcombing
- Berry Picking
- Birding
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Motor Boat
- Picnicking
- Sea Kayaking
- Snowmobile
- Snowshoeing
- Whale Watching
- Cell signal · Cell signal · Forest Service says
- None
Full this Saturdayread 16:38 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:38 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 · 12
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 16:38 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.
| Cabin | 01 | cabin nonelectric | yes | 542 ft | $70 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kook Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 17 mi
Kathleen Lake CabinAdmiralty Island National Monument · 19 mi
Florence Lake (East) CabinAdmiralty Island National Monument · 22 mi
Eight Fathom Cabin24 mi
Moser Island CabinTongass National Forest · 25 mi
Sitkoh Lake (East) CabinTongass National Forest · 27 miKennel Creek Cabin is located approximately 19 air miles southeast of the City of Hoonah, Alaska on the south shore of Freshwater Bay. Access is by vehicle, float plane, or boat. Total distance by gravel road is approximately 27 miles. By road travel south from Hoonah past the airport. Where the road turns to gravel, drive 2 miles to the “T” intersection, turn right toward Freshwater Bay. Drive 25 miles on National Forest System road 8502/8508, veer left at all “Y” intersections. The cabin is located at the end of a short access road on your left. Road maps are avaliable at the Hoonah Ranger District office during weekday business hours.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Tenakee Springs, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 38°F, day 48°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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
Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) 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 Kennel Creek Cabin (AK), Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Kennel Creek Cabin (AK), Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) 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. Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Kennel Creek Cabin (AK). 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 Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) (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 Kennel Creek Cabin (AK), Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Kennel Creek Cabin (AK), Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) 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. Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Kennel Creek Cabin (AK). 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 Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) (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 Kennel Creek Cabin (AK), Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Kennel Creek Cabin (AK), Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) 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. Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Kennel Creek Cabin (AK). 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 Kennel Creek Cabin (AK) (Alaska) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
How we know
every fact on this page, and where it came from
“…cabin with no electricity, indoor plumbing or cell phone coverage. Visitors are responsible for their own travel…”