Portage Bay Cabin
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:05 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
The Portage Bay Cabin is located on the eastern shore of Portage Bay on Kupreanof Island, due east of Stop Island. It provides access to scenic views as well as a variety of recreational opportunities. Visitors to the area enjoy fishing, hiking and wildlife viewing. It is accessible by boat or float plane only. Guests are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
There is excellent halibut fishing in the mouth of Portage Bay. Coho, pink salmon, steelhead and trout fishing are available in the nearby Portage Creek. Hunting for black bears, waterfowl and grouse is also available as per state or federal hunting regulations; click here for more information from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The primitive Portage Mountain Loop Trail connects the cabin with Petersburg Lake Cabin and Salt Chuck East Cabin through Goose Cove, south of the bay. The trail is especially primitive over to Petersburg Lake and is seldom used due to the level of difficulty. Sections of the trail are flooded by beaver ponds.
Facilities
The single-level, hunter-style cabin has four single wooden bunks and can accommodate up to six people. It is equipped with a table, benches and a clean-burning oil heater. An outhouse with a pit toilet is provided. Water for drinking, cooking and cleaning is not provided at the cabin. The nearest water source is a small creek 100 feet south of the cabin. Water taken from any outdoor source should be treated or boiled before consumption. Guests are encouraged to bring drinking water if possible. Guests will need to bring their own sleeping bags and pads, cook stove and cooking gear, towels, food, clothing, fire starter and garbage bags, among other necessities. Guests are advised to bring enough kerosene or No. 1 heating oil for the oil heater. It burns at a rate of approximately one gallon per day. Oil is not supplied at the cabin. Click here for more cabin details and maps.
Natural Features
The cabin was originally built as an administrative site for Forest Service timber layout crews, but was converted to a recreation cabin in 1987. It sits back from the rocky eastern shore of Portage Bay in southeastern Alaska. The surrounding terrain is hilly along the east and flat and rolling south and west of the bay. Portage Mountain rises 3,577 feet in the background.
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
This is the old cabin near the head of Portage Bay, not the new West Point Cabin located at the mouth of the bay
Everything else this campground posts · 8
There is no source of fresh water near the cabin; guests must bring their own
Firewood at the cabin is supplied only for heating the cabin, it is not for outdoor campfires; collect dead and down wood from the forest for your outdoor campfire
Use of this cabin by a commercial operator, such as an outfitter or guide, is not allowed
High levels of Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) have been recorded in this area
All garbage and food must be packed out
Learn more about Tongass 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.
The invasive European Green Crab (EGC) has been found in southern Southeast Alaska and is suspected to be in more locations on the Tongass National Forest. Please actively look for and report EGC to help map the distribution and contribute to management.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 1 · 1 cabin
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Pit Toilets
- “…oil heater. An outhouse with a pit toilet is provided. Water for drinking, cooking and…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “Guests are encouraged to bring drinking water if possible.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
2 of 2 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:05 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
OpenBooked
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.
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 · 17
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 16:05 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 PORTAGE BAY CABIN | P25 | cabin nonelectric | 498 ft | $25 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
West Point CabinTongass National Forest · 4.3 mi
Salt Chuck East CabinTongass National Forest · 6.0 mi
Petersburg Lake CabinTongass National Forest · 7.2 mi
Towers Arm CabinTongass National Forest · 8.7 mi
Spurt Cove CabinTongass National Forest · 16 mi
Big John Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 17 miFrom Petersburg the journey is 15 miles by float plane or 25 miles by boat. Refer to USGS topographic map Petersburg D4. Petersburg D3. Sumdum A4 may also be helpful. Maps are available online or by calling the Petersburg Ranger District at (907) 772-3871.
Float plane or boat access can only occur at certain stages of the tide. Please check current conditions prior to your trip. Click here for more information.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Kupreanof, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 47°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 27°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
Portage 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 →