Port Chalmers Cabin
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Port Chalmers Cabin offers guests access to a variety of recreational activities, relaxation and a unique lodging experience on Montague Island in southcentral Alaska. The remote site offers a scenic setting for hiking, fishing, hunting, and wildlife viewing all within steps of the cabin. Access to the cabin is by float plane or boat from Cordova, Seward or Whittier. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Anglers can fish for pink, chum, and coho salmon in the bay and streams around the cabin. Some pink salmon spawn in the tiny creeks around the cabin.The main spawning stream in the area is Chalmers River, about a mile to the north across the inlet. Chum and pink salmon can be found in this waterway. Rockfish and halibut can be found in kelp beds and on the rocky bottom area in the open ocean outside the bay. Hunters can take advantage of a long hunting season on the island and in the surrounding national forest. Bear season occurs during spring and fall, while deer season begins in late summer and lasts through late fall.
Facilities
The rustic, 12-by-14 cabin has wooden bunks, without mattresses, that can sleep up to six people. It is also equipped with a table, wood stove, oil stove, a rainwater catchment barrel, axe, saw, splitting maul and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Guests must bring their own water, food, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cook stoves, matches, cut firewood, cooking gear/utensils, a light source, No.1 stove oil, toilet paper, first aid kit and garbage bags Click here for more cabin details.
Natural Features
Montague Island lies in the Gulf of Alaska, at the entrance to Prince William Sound. The cabin is located in a grassy clearing at the edge of a dense spruce-hemlock forest interspersed with muskeg openings. It is considered to be within the tidal bay area at the southern end of Port Chalmers on the northwest side of the island. Low hills rise from the surrounding area. In the distance, snow drapes higher peaks. Wildlife in the area abounds, including migratory waterfowl, Sitka black-tail deer and brown bears (learn more about bear safety ).
Nearby Attractions
Guests should be aware that the cabin sits within the Chugach National Forest, however some of the land on Montegue Island is owned by the Chugach Alaska Corporation . Access to these lands requires permission from the corporation. Contact the Cordova Ranger District at (907) 424-7661 for a detailed map of land ownership in the area.
What the agency tells you
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)
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 this facility; visitors must bring their own for drinking, cooking, and cleaning
Everything else this campground posts · 6
All garbage and food must be packed out
Same day reservations are allowed for this cabin
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
Icy conditions late in the year may make cabin access difficult
Learn more about Chugach National Forest and Prince William Sound
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
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…axe, saw, splitting maul and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water or…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Guests must bring their own water,…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
No reading yet, book on recreation.gov
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
No availability snapshot inside the last 36 hours, so this page draws nothing rather than ageing a reading into fiction.
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 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
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 PORT CHALMERS CABIN | C16 | cabin nonelectric | 1,985 ft | $75 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Green Island CabinChugach National Forest · 6.2 mi
Beach River Cabin14 mi
Nellie Martin River CabinChugach National Forest · 22 mi
Log Jam Bay CabinChugach National Forest · 24 mi
Shelter Bay Cabin26 miFive Fingers Campsites32 miAccess to the cabin is by float plane (40 minutes from Cordova, 60 minutes from Seward) or boat (65 miles from Cordova, 70 miles from Whittier, 100 miles from Seward). Best access to the cabin is at high tide. Click here for local tide tables.
Winter access may be difficult due to pan ice in the bay, and guests should be prepared for extended stays due to poor weather. Please contact the Cordova Ranger District at (907) 424-7661, for an update on conditions prior to arrival.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Chenega, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 36°F, day 45°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 26°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Port Chalmers 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 →