U.S. Forest Service · Chugach National Forest · AK

Pigot Bay Cabin

Reservable, and full this SaturdayThe one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and the record lists no site held back for a walk-up. read 16:12 UTC

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 16:12 UTC
Sites
1All of them booked ahead
210 ftElevation
447 ftWater · an unnamed streamOcean · 320 ft
2.5 miSE of Anchorage, AK
76%Tree cover
Bortle 2Night sky · 233rd darkest of 280 in AK

The place

the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices

In the agency’s own words

Pigot Bay Cabin is tucked away in a secluded and picturesque area of Prince William Sound. It is open year-round, offering an ideal base for exploration, recreation and relaxation. The area can be accessed by float plane or boat, depending on conditions. The cabin is reached via a trail from the beach. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities including sleeping pad, sleeping bag, cook stove, toilet paper, cook pots and utensils as well as some form of water treatment. Keep reading

Recreation

The topography is very rugged, which limits hiking in the area. Visitors can bring kayaks to explore the bay along the coast of Port Wells, but should consult the local tide reports in advance for their safety. Fishing is fair for pink salmon in late July and early August in freshwater streams and the saltwater of the bay. Saltwater fishing is possible for halibut and red snapper (rockfish) near Pigot Bay and the western shore of Esther Island. Pigot Bay also offers some good shrimping spots. Digging for butter clams is possible on the few gravel beaches at the head of the bay. Hunting for deer and bear is allowed in designated seasons with the proper permits. Blueberries and raspberries are also available for picking in season.

Facilities

The 16 x 16 foot A-frame cabin has a main floor and a loft. It sleeps six and comes equipped with wooden bunks, a table with benches, an oil drip (Kerosene) stove, fire extinguisher and a broom. Cabin users must supply their own kerosene fuel for the stove. Typically 1 gallon/ day is sufficent. 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. Please burn your toilet paper to reduce the amount of trash in the system and promote efficient composting. The gravel area in front of the cabin has a small campfire ring. Water and electricity are not available. Visitors must bring their own supply of drinking water, especially since natural sources may be difficult to access. Any water from natural sources should be treated before drinking. Items such as a cook stove, cooking gear, flashlights or lanterns, bedding, sleeping pads, trash bags, toilet paper and Kerosene are not provided. Guests are expected to pack out trash and clean the cabin before leaving.

Natural Features

Pigot Bay Cabin is located on a tall bluff overlooking Pigot Bay. The bay is mostly steep-sided, but has a wide, shallow outwash valley at its head. The cabin sits at the edge of a dense evergreen forest, offering views over the bay to the mountains and glaciers beyond. Black bears, bald eagles and waterfowl (mainly geese at the head of the bay) are common visitors to the area ( learn about bear safety ). Mountain goats are sometimes seen on the surrounding cliffs. Prince William Sound supports such species as Dall's and harbor porpoises, harbor seals, sea otters and sea lions. A lucky few may even spot a pod of orcas or a humpback whale. 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

Rule

! 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.

Rule

Check In 12:00 PM night of Rental until 12:00 PM the following day.

Rule

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
Rule

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

Rule

Water is not available at the cabin; guests must bring their own water supply. All water taken from natural sources must be boiled or treated.

Rule

Please pack out all trash and food

Rule

Please be aware of the risks of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) before harvesting any shellfish

Rule

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

Rule

Click here for more information about Chugach National Forest

Rule

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.

Read them on the agency’s own page →

Tents and rigs

Sites
1 · 1 cabin
Hookups
None
Accessible sites
None listed
Pets
Allowed
Campfires
Allowed, barring fire bans
Shade
Every site
Source: Recreation.gov campsite records · Aug 23, 2026

Facilities

Toilets
Composting Toilets
“…1 gallon/ day is sufficent. A new Composting Toilet has recently been built. The toilet has a…”
Stay limit
7 nights
recreation.gov facility rule maxStay

Around the campground

On the water
Creek, Beach, Coast
Fishing
Hunting
Wildlife viewing
Source: Recreation.gov activity records · Aug 23, 2026

Full this Saturdayread 16:12 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 16:12 UTC Why the weekend fills and the week doesn’t

Booking window6 months outBookable now through April 16, 2027. Today at 10 AM ET, availability opens through April 17, 2027.recreation.gov
Max stay7 nightsthe facility record
Sites, a night, from$75From the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate we can read.derived by CAMPANAC
If plans change$10 to cancel$10 to change a reservationrecreation.gov’s schedule
Runs itU.S. Forest ServiceBooked through recreation.govthe agency’s record
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.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
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’ll write once, when the season that starts Sat, Jan 1 2028 is open for booking.

Free forever, no booking kickbacks.
Book on recreation.gov ↗

We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.

Every line of the receipt · 15

What you actually pay

The sign priceU.S. Forest Service
Sites, a night, from$75
Derived by CAMPANAC from the rate schedule matched to 1 of its 1 sites. U.S. Forest Service publishes no campground-level rate for this campground that we can read, only per-site rate templates its own record matches to each site’s own type.
Group area, a night$75
Rates for the season the campground is in now, May 1, 2026 to Dec 31, 2026.
Only one change per reservation for all Alaska cabins is allowed.
Change is defined as a modification to the start or end date of the reservation
after one change has been made, if additional changes are desired, the customer must cancel the current reservation and re-book the new dates.
The booking feerecreation.gov
Reservation fee, booked online$8
One fee per reservation, however many nights you book, and it’s non-refundable. $9 if you book by phone, $3 in person.
Pass discounts only apply to the recreation (or use) fee for the facility. Other charges such as electricity or water hookups, reservation or other fees are not eligible for a discount.
What a stay costs
The agency publishes no nightly rate for this campground, so there’s nothing to add the $8 booking fee to. We won’t total a receipt with a number missing from it.
If your plans changerecreation.gov
Change fee, moving to dates outside your booking$10
Cancellation fee$10
Cancelling the day before, or the day of$10 + your first night
No-show$20 + your first night

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 16:12 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

The sites

1 sites · the site map

All 1 sites

1 of 1 sites located
Cabin or shelter1
Aerial · Esri World Imagery
SleepsUp to

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.

Getting there

the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Coordinate60.84139, -148.39889
The phone907-783-3242
The agency’s pageOfficial page ↗

Where it is

Getting there

This Cabin is not accessible via the road system. The cabin is located on the southwest shore near the head of Pigot Bay, northeast of Whittier. Access by a float plane is a 40 minute trip from Anchorage or a 60 minute trip from Cordova. By boat, it is a 18 mile float from Whittier. Check local tide reports to determine the most ideal arrival and departure times. Boats are not provided by the Forest Service.

The weather

the next four days · the thirty-year normal

Next four days, and the thirty-year normal

Forecast

Overnight36°Slight Chance Light Rain19% rain
Saturday44°Slight Chance Light Rain then Partly Sunny20% rain
Saturday Night34°Partly Cloudy10% rain
Sunday43°Mostly Sunny then Isolated Rain Showers18% rain

NWS forecast for Anchorage, 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.

70°32°10°

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.

Measured at: WHITTIER, AK (USC00509829), 11 miles away and 150 ft lower

The land, and who answers for it

what threatens it · who answers for it · a letter you can send

What threatens this place

developing
Chugach National Forestlogging, rollback
Roadless
Twenty Mile198,775 acres · 9 mi · inventoried roadless area

You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.

Source: MTJP Threatened Lands map · Oct 3, 2026

Who answers for this land

Nick Begich, official portrait

Pigot 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 →

Seen something wrong here? Tell us.

Who can change it · 3
Write to somebody who can change it

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.

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.

To Nicholas J. Begich III

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 Pigot Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska

Dear Nicholas J. Begich III,

I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Pigot Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Pigot 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. Pigot Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Pigot 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 Pigot Bay Cabin (Chugach National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com
To Dan Sullivan

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 Pigot Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska

Dear Dan Sullivan,

I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Pigot Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Pigot 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. Pigot Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Pigot 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 Pigot Bay Cabin (Chugach National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com
To Lisa Murkowski

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 Pigot Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska

Dear Lisa Murkowski,

I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Pigot Bay Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t.

All 1 sites at Pigot 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. Pigot Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule.

I’m not asking you to run Pigot 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 Pigot Bay Cabin (Chugach National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com
How we know this · 4
The figures in these drafts: Navy Ford (CVN-78) Class Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress (CRS Report RS20643) · Updated December 4, 2025 · “The ship’s final procurement cost was $13,316.5 million (i.e., about $13.3 billion) in then-year dollars.”
The figures in these drafts: Salary Table 2026-GS, Incorporating the 1% General Schedule Increase, Effective January 2026 (U.S. Office of Personnel Management) · Effective January 2026 · “Grade 5, Step 1: $34,799 (annual rate, before locality pay).”
The figures in these drafts: Update to Civilian Position Full Fringe Benefit Cost Factor, Federal Pay Raise Assumptions, and Inflation Factors used in OMB Circular No. A-76 (OMB Memorandum M-08-13) · March 11, 2008 · “the civilian position full fringe benefit cost factor needs to be adjusted downward, from 36.45 percent to 36.25 percent”

How we know

every fact on this page, and where it came from
Right now: recreation.gov is offering sites on 30 of the next 30 nights, which isn’t something a closed campground does.
Cell signal: the Forest Service’s own campground description, read as text by CAMPANAC. None of this is a measurement. It’s what the land manager published about the place, and phones, carriers and weather all disagree with each other; treat it as a warning, not a promise.