Louella 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 25 of the next 30 nights read 16:31 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 11 notices
In the agency’s own words
Located in the northeast portion of Olympic National Forest, Louella Cabin offers guests a unique lodging experience. It was built in 1912 by Forest Service employee, E. M. Cheney, who dedicated the structure to his wife, Louella. A fireguard was stationed at the cabin during the summer and fall. During the Great Depression, a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp was built in the lower part of the meadow below the cabin and consisted of barracks, a bathhouse and mess hall. The CCC has worked on many projects in the area, including fire lookouts, trails, bridges, roads and planting trees after forest fires. Keep reading
After the CCC camp closed in 1939, the guard station was used by various agencies until 1976. Today, the site offers guests year-round recreation and relaxation in Olympic National Forest. Access to the cabin is by vehicle; however, snow chains may be required in winter. The cabin offers several amenities, but guests will need to bring a few of their own supplies for a truly enjoyable stay.
Recreation
The cabin is conveniently located near the Buckhorn Wilderness, which offers excellent opportunities for backpacking, horseback riding, hunting, mountain climbing and hiking, with over 58 miles of trails. Anglers will enjoy fishing the Dungeness River, and are drawn to it for steelhead and cutthroat trout, as well as chinook, coho and pink salmon. The river has its headwaters high on Mount Mystery in Olympic National Park, and descends into Dungeness Bay on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
Facilities
The four-room cabin can accommodate six people. The living room has a futon. One bedroom has a queen bed and the other has twin bunk beds. The kitchen has a table and chairs, cook stove, refrigerator, dishes, pots, silverware and cooking utensils. The cabin also has electricity and a propane heater. Propane is furnished. There is also a fire ring near the cabin for outdoor barbecuing and campfires, as well as a covered picnic table. Potable water and an indoor toilet are available. There are no shower facilities. Guests need to provide their own sleeping bags, pillows, flashlights, towels, dish soap, matches, cleaning supplies first aid kit, toilet paper and garbage bags. All trash and food must be packed out, and guests are expected to clean the cabin before leaving. Please leave nothing behind, if you would like to make a donation of goods to the cabin please contact the Ranger Station for a list of needs.
Natural Features
Louella Cabin sits on a gentle slope overlooking a valley and flanked by a canopy of towering Douglas fir. Buckhorn Wilderness is accessible from the cabin. Located in the northeast corner of Olympic National Forest, the wilderness area is divided into northern and southern portions by the Dungeness River. The northern portion descends from higher mountainous terrain to lowlands, heavily forested in fir, hemlock, and cedar with an understory of moss, ferns, and berry bushes. South of the river, the terrain soars skyward to alpine meadows and rocky ridges. Magnificent old-growth western hemlock, western red cedar and Douglas fir dominate the forest, providing habitat for elk, black-tailed deer, black bears and mountain lions.
Nearby Attractions
Take some time to visit the area around the historic Tubal Cain mine in the nearby Buckhorn Wilderness or hike to views of the Olympic mountains and Buckhorn Wilderness from the Ned Hill Lookout site. Visitors also enjoy access to Olympic National Park from this area. Take some time to visit Olympic National Park, known for its diverse and spectacular ecosystems.
What the agency tells you
No shower facilities
The required code for the keyless lock to access the cabin, is provided in the reservation confirmation email
The maximum cabin capacity is 6 people
Everything else this campground posts · 8
Pets are not allowed at this facility
Pack out all food and garbage and clean the facility before you leave
Doors and windows should be locked and all personal items removed upon departure
The cabin is a no-smoking facility
Cell phone service is spotty, the nearest phone is 5 miles away at Sequim Bay State Park.
Learn more about Olympic National Forest
Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.
For additional questions, please contact the Hood Canal Ranger Station at (360) 765-2200
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- 1 electric
- Longest rig
- 20 ft
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Potable water and an indoor toilet are available.”
- Showers
- None at this campground
- “There are no shower facilities.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…as well as a covered picnic table. Potable water and an indoor toilet are available. There are no…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Coast, Meadow
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Mountain biking
- Wildlife viewing
- Night sky · 378th darkest of 400 in WA
- Bortle 4
Full this Saturdayread 16:31 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosedNot on the booking system
The one site on offer is taken this Friday and Saturday. 1 is free on Wed, Oct 21. read 16:31 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 · 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 16:31 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.
| AREA LOUELLA CABIN | 001 | cabin electric | 20 ft | 167 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Dungeness Forks CampgroundOlympic National Forest · 1.9 mi
Deer Park CampgroundOlympic National Park · 8.7 mi
Falls View CampgroundOlympic National Forest · 16 mi
Heart O' the Hills CampgroundOlympic National Park · 16 miSeal Rock CampgroundOlympic National Forest · 22 mi
Collins CampgroundOlympic National Forest · 22 miFrom Sequim, travel east for approximately 3 miles. Just past John Wayne Marina Road, turn right onto the Palo Alto Road and travel approximately 8 miles. The access drive to Louella Cabin is by an information kiosk on the right. Turn into the driveway, go past the first building, and Louella Cabin is on the right.
Access to the cabin by vehicle may require chains in the winter during periods of heavy snow; the last 1/8 mile of road is not plowed.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Blyn, WA
Typical weather
Typical October night 46°F, day 58°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical December night 36°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
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 · a letter you can send
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Louella Cabin is in Washington’s 6th congressional district. Its representative, Emily Randall (D), votes on the laws that decide what happens to this land. Public-lands grade so far: A+. 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 moneyEmily RandallU.S. Representative · Washington’s 6th district
- Your senator, on the same appropriationMaria CantwellU.S. Senator · Washington
- Your senator, on the same appropriationPatty MurrayU.S. Senator · Washington
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 Louella Cabin, Olympic National Forest, Washington
Dear Emily Randall, I’m a constituent in Washington’s 6th district. I tried to camp at Louella Cabin, Olympic National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Louella 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. Louella Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Louella 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 Louella Cabin (Olympic National Forest, Washington) 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 Louella Cabin, Olympic National Forest, Washington
Dear Maria Cantwell, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Louella Cabin, Olympic National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Louella 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. Louella Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Louella 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 Louella Cabin (Olympic National Forest, Washington) 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 Louella Cabin, Olympic National Forest, Washington
Dear Patty Murray, I’m a constituent in Washington. I tried to camp at Louella Cabin, Olympic National Forest, Washington, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Louella 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. Louella Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Louella 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 Louella Cabin (Olympic National Forest, Washington) via campanac.com