Porcupine 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; a database flag says not open read 15:39 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 1 notices
In the agency’s own words
Porcupine Cabin is located in the Porcupine Campground near the beautiful and historic town of Hope. Nestled in a thick birch forest, this two-story cabin looks out over scenic Turnagain Arm and is surrounded by the Chugach and Kenai Mountains. The hike to the cabin is an easy 300 ft walk from the designated cabin parking area located in the campground. Winter access to the cabin is a short 2,000 ft walk, snowshoe, or ski from the winter parking area. Porcupine Cabin is handicapped accessible and can sleep up to eight people. Keep reading
Please contact the Seward Ranger District at 907-288-3178 for current campground and road conditions. The cabin has bunk space for eight adults with a maximum occupancy of eight people. It is equipped with a stainless steel countertop, table, benches and a wood stove. There is a metal fire ring with benches for outdoor fires. Splitting maul and hand saw are avaialble. It is recommended to bring fire wood as resources in the area are limited. The vault toilet is 25 ft from the cabin, toilet paper is not provided. There is no electricity, mattresses, bedding, cooking utensils or cut firewood at the cabin. Visitors should bring sleeping bags and pads, a cook stove, cooking gear and food. Potable water and trash disposal are only available in the campground during the peak season (Memorial Day-Labor Day) and will need to be hauled in/out during the off season (Labor Day-Memorial Day). Trash should be disposed of in the dumpsters located in the campground or the transfer station located at MP 16 of the Hope Highway.
Recreation
There are several recreation opportunities within the area. The Gull Rock Trail is just steps away from the cabin and is suitable for family outings and day hiking. There are several breaks in the forest along the trail, many of which make great overlooks and picnic spots. Hope Point Trail is also accessble via the Gull Rock Trail and offers the opportunity for a 2,338 ft. elevation gain. The hike is quite rewarding with views of Resurrection Creek Valley, Turnagain Arm, Cook Inlet, Fire Island and the Chugach Mountains. Other recreation opportunities are available by accessing Resurrection Creek Road located off of the Hope Highway at Milepost 16.2. To access Palmer Creek Road and Couer d'Alene Campground, head south along Resurrection Creek Road for 1/2 mile, turn left on to Palmer Creek Road and travel six miles to the campground. To access Resurrection Pass North Trailhead stay on Resurrection Creek road for 4.5 miles until you reach the trailhead. Click here for more maps and recreation opportunity guides. Enjoy fishing for Pink salmon at Resurrection Creek in Hope. Fishing begins to pick up by the third week of July during odd years. This is a great fishery for children to participate in. Pink salmon are aggressive and will generally take any tackle easily. Try fishing with a Russian River Coho Fly, Pixees™, small, colorful spoons or spinners. Anglers are required to have a State of Alaska Fishing license and obey all regulations. Click here to learn more about Alaska Departmnt of Fish & Game regulations.
Facilities
The two-story log cabin has bunk space for eight people with maximum occupancy of eight people. It is equipped with stainless steel counterspace, table, benches and a wood stove. A splitting maul and hand saw are available. There is a steel firepit and benches outside the cabin. Users should plan to bring their own firewood as resources in the area are limited. The vault toilet is located within 25 ft of the cabin, toilet paper is not provided. There is no electricity, mattresses, bedding, cooking utensils or cut firewood at the cabin. Visitors should bring sleeping bags and pads, cook stove, cooking gear and food. Potable water is located in the campground (Memorial Day-Labor Day) and must be hauled to the cabin. Trash should be disposed of in dumpsters located in the campground (Memorial Day-Labor Day) or the transfer station located at MP 16 of the Hope Highway. Potable water and trash disposal/dumpsters are only available in the campground during the summer season which typically runs Memorial Day-Labor Day. Potable water and trash disposal dumpsters will not be available Labor Day-Memorial Day and users will be responsible for hauling water and disposing of trash properly.
Natural Features
Nestled in a birch forest, this cabin sits atop a bluff overlooking Turnagain Arm in Cook Inlet and provides breathtaking and expansive views of the area. The Chugach National Forest covers the eastern half of the Kenai Peninsula and extends around Prince William Sound. It covers over 5 million acres and is characterized by jagged mountains, deep fjords, glacier-fed rivers, and dense forests. This rich natural area supports many miles of productive fishing streams as well as wildlife populations. There are plenty of berries along the Gull Rock Trail throughout the summer including blueberries and raspberries. Book the cabin during a full or new moon and sit on the deck and watch the powerful tidal wave that is the famous bore tide of Turnagain Arm. The area also has abundant wildlife including black bears, coyotes, wolves, moose, beluga whales and many birds. Click here to learn more about staying safe in bear country. Make your campsite less attractive to bears by practicing good Leave No Trace skills and learn more about outdoor safety and ethics .
Nearby Attractions
Porcupine Cabin is within close proximity to the small historic town of Hope which is home to many tourist and recreational opportunities. Hope is considered to be the best preserved gold rush town in the region. Try gold panning, white water rafting or check out the Hope-Sunrise Historical Society. Click here for more information about Hope.
Charges & Cancellations
Reservations can be made the day of arrival or up to 180 days in advance, for three consecutive days maximum per person. 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. If you cancel a cabin reservation within 14 days of your scheduled arrival date, you will be charged the $10 service fee and forfeit the first night's recreation use fee. No-shows, early departures, or cancellations after the scheduled arrival date are not entitled to a refund. Cancellations for single night use for Alaska cabins will not be assessed a service fee.
What the agency tells you
- Depending on snow depth, the Porcupine Campground gate is closed during the winter season (October-May). Plowed parking spots are provided in front of the campground gate. Users will have to make their way to the cabin by traveling through the campground. - Parking is provided within the campground during the summer months. The cabin is approximately 200 feet down the Gull Rock trail, off of the north end of the campground loop. - Water is available at the campground wells during summer months. Users will have to haul in their own water in fall, winter and spring. (The nearest freshwater source is Porcupine Creek, at the entrance to the campground). - Users must provide their own firewood.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Pets
- Allowed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “The vault toilet is 25 ft from the cabin, toilet paper is not provided.”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…a cook stove, cooking gear and food. Potable water and trash disposal are only available in the…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 3 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Mountain biking
- Scenic drives
- Whitewater rafting
Full this Saturdayread 15:39 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 15:39 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 · 13
What you actually pay
“If you cancel a cabin reservation within 14 days of your scheduled arrival date, you will be charged the $10 service fee and forfeit the first night's recreation use fee.” · this campground’s own no-show terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 15:39 UTC · rules read Oct 1, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Toilet distances are OpenStreetMap’s, measured for 1 of the 1 sites listed. A site with no reading is unknown, never far.
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.
| Porcupine | Porcupine Cabin | cabin nonelectric | 1,816 ft | 330 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the phone number
Where it is
Caribou Creek CabinChugach National Forest · 10 mi
Fox Creek Cabin (AK)Chugach National Forest · 14 mi
East Creek CabinChugach National Forest · 16 miBertha Creek CampgroundChugach National Forest · 19 miThe weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Hope, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 32°F, day 44°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 17°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
Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Porcupine Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Porcupine 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. Porcupine Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Porcupine 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 Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Porcupine Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Porcupine 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. Porcupine Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Porcupine 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 Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Porcupine Cabin, Chugach National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Porcupine 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. Porcupine Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Porcupine 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 Porcupine Cabin (Chugach National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com