Paulson Bay 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 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:04 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
Paulson Bay Cabin offers a secluded getaway for relaxation and recreation in the beautiful Prince William Sound. The cabin is open year-round and makes a great base for sea kayaking, fishing, shrimping and sightseeing. This remote site can be accessed by float plane or by boat, depending on conditions. The cabin sits on a bluff and can be reached by some steps leading up from the beach. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities including sleeping pads, sleeping bags, cook stove, toilet paper, pots and utensils as well as some form of water purification. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking in the area is fairly easy because there is relatively little brush to inhibit movement. A three-quarter mile route leads north from the cabin to the creek. Guests can bring kayaks for exploring the coastline and the bay. Local tide reports should be consulted before any kayaking trip, and kayakers should watch out for the numerous submerged rock ledges in the area. Fishing is good for chum and pink salmon, usually from late July through August. Guests can also catch shrimp and bottom fish. Hunting for bear and waterfowl is available in season with the proper permits.
Facilities
The 12 x 14 foot cabin sleeps six and comes equipped with wooden bunks, a table with benches, and an oil drip (Kerosene) stove for heat, fire extinguisher, broom and an outhouse with composting toilet. It is the responsibility of cabin users to supply kerosene fuel for the duration of their stay. With moderate use, the stove burns about 1 gallon/ day. A new Composting Toilet has recently been built. The toilet has a seperating toilet seat which redirects urine into a leach field. The outhouse has been converted to a composting toilet and requires the user to add a small amount of peat (1/2 cup) after use. There is a metal bin for users to burn their toilet paper, please burn tp. Water and electricity are not available. Guests must bring their own supply of drinking water or treat water from nearby natural sources. Items such as a cook stove, cooking gear, flashlights or lanterns, bedding, sleeping pads, trash bags and toilet paper and heating fuel (kerosene) are not provided. Guests are expected to pack out trash and clean the cabin before leaving.
Natural Features
Paulson Bay Cabin is situated at the head of Paulson Bay, on the west side of Cochrane Bay in Prince William Sound. The terrain is rolling and transitions into rugged mountains. The cabin is set in an open wooded area with muskeg nearby and offers a spectacular view of Port Wells and College Fiord with Harvard Glacier in the background. Black bears, Sitka black-tailed deer and bald eagles make their home here ( learn about bear safety ). Prince William Sound supports abundant sea life, including waterfowl, sea otters, orcas, Dall's porpoises, harbor seals and sea lions. Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (907) 783-3242.
What the agency tells you
! USERS MUST SUPPLY THEIR OWN HEATING OIL ! 1-2 gallon(s) a day is the recommended amount but plan appropriately for cooler temps in Winter, Spring and Fall.
Check In 12:00 PM night of Rental until 12:00 PM the following day.
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)
Everything else this campground posts · 7
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
Water is not available at the cabin; guests must bring their own water supply or treat water from natural sources.
Please pack out all trash and food
A 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
Please be aware of the risks of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) before harvestingany shellfish
Click here for more information about Chugach 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
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Composting Toilets
- “…extinguisher, broom and an outhouse with composting toilet. It is the responsibility of cabin users to supply…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Guests must bring their own supply of drinking water or treat water from nearby natural sources.”
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:04 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:04 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 · 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 16:04 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 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 PAULSON BAY CABIN | G06 | cabin nonelectric | 331 ft | $50 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Shrode Lake CabinChugach National Forest · 3.9 mi
Goose Bay CabinChugach National Forest · 6.2 mi
Pigot Bay CabinChugach National Forest · 10 mi
Williwaw CampgroundChugach National Forest · 17 miBlack Bear CampgroundChugach National Forest · 18 mi
Spencer Bench CabinChugach National Forest · 21 miThis Cabin is not accessible via the road system. To access the cabin by float plane: it is 40 minutes from Anchorage and 60 minutes from Cordova. By boat, the trip is 18 miles from Whittier. Boats are not provided by the Forest Service.
Note: the Bay is not obvious because the mouth is partially obscured by five small islands. Beware of submerged rock ledges between islands and off coastal points.
Check local tide tables ahead of time to determine the best arrival and departure times.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Whittier, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 44°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 24°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
Paulson 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 →
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 Paulson Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Paulson Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Paulson Bay 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Paulson Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Paulson Bay 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 Paulson Bay Cabin (Chugach National Forest, 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 Paulson Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Paulson Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Paulson Bay 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Paulson Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Paulson Bay 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 Paulson Bay Cabin (Chugach National Forest, 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 Paulson Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Paulson Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Paulson Bay 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 7,647 federal campgrounds in this country still keep at least some sites for whoever arrives first. Paulson Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Paulson Bay 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 Paulson Bay Cabin (Chugach National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com