Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka
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 27 of the next 30 nights read 16:14 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 15 notices
In the agency’s own words
Salmon Lake Cabin sits on the east shore of Salmon Lake on Baranof Island, 11 miles southeast of Sitka, Alaska. The cabin was built in 1998 by volunteers from the U.S. Coast Guard. This remote site is generally accessible year-round by boat to Silver Bay, then walking 2 miles along the Salmon Lake-Redoubt Lake Trail. The cabin can also be accessed via float plane, a 10-minute ride from Sitka. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Recreation options include fishing, hiking and seasonal deer hunting. The lake offers good cutthroat trout and Dolly Varden fishing, while its outlet stream has pink and sockeye salmon runs from July to mid-August and coho salmon from late August through September. Visitors enjoy hiking along the 2-mile Salmon Lake-Redoubt Lake Trail, which leads from the cabin to Silver Bay. For information about fishing and hunting permits and seasons, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website.
Facilities
The 15'x17' wood Pan Abode-style cabin accommodates up to six people with two double and two single plywood bunks. Amenities include a wood stove for heat, a table with benches, cooking counter, cupboard, broom, an axe or splitting maul and an outhouse toilet. A mooring buoy is located at the head of Silver Bay for boat anchorage. Cabin reservation does not include exclusive use of the buoy. Mooring buoys are configured using a 4200-lb concrete block with 90 feet of 7/8th-inch stud link chain. Mariners are responsible for determining how suitable an anchoring system is for the size of their craft. The cabin does not include mattresses or cooking utensils. Visitors should bring sleeping bags and pads, a cooking stove, pots, pans, plates, utensils, food, toilet paper, garbage bags, a lantern, fire extinguisher, fire starter and personal flotation devices (PFDs). Rain gear and boots are recommended. Water is available from the lake but must be treated before using. It's recommended that visitors bring their own water. A small but heavy square-bowed skiff with oars is provided. A long-shaft 2-10 hp outboard motor enhances use of the skiff, but is not provided. Each person in the skiff should wear a Coast Guard approved personal flotation device (PFD). Tie the skiff well up on the shore and pull the plug before leaving so the boat does not fill with rain water. Click here for more cabin information and maps.
Natural Features
Spruce and hemlock-forested mountains rise to 2500' in elevation around Salmon Lake and the cabin. Salmon Lake is approximately 3/4-mile long and 1/4-mile wide. The cabin is 2 miles from the end of Silver Bay, which may freeze mid-November through mid-February. Brown bear frequent 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
Plan arrival and departure during high tide, unload gear at east shore at estuary head, then tie up boat at mooring buoy
Everything else this campground posts · 12
Cabin may be inaccessible by plane from November through early April due to frozen lake surface (floatplanes cannot land); please contact the local Forest Service Ranger District office for current information prior to making reservations during this period
Cabin may also be inaccessible by boat as the head of Silver Bay may freeze mid-November through mid-February
Cabin not maintained in the winter
For boat or air charters, contact the Sitka Convention and VisitorsBureau at 907-747-5940 or www.Sitka.org
Boil or treat lake water before drinking
Pack out all garbage and food
Rain gear is recommended
Firewood may be scarce
Click here to learn more about Tongass National Forest
Check out the forest's campground description for specific information to Fish Your 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
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “Amenities include a wood stove for heat, a table with benches, cooking counter, cupboard, broom, an axe or splitting maul and an outhouse toilet.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…using. It's recommended that visitors bring their own water. A small but heavy square-bowed skiff with oars is…”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Coast
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
Full this Saturdayread 16:14 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBookedClosed
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday. 1 is free on Mon, Oct 19. read 16:14 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 · 14
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 · 4
recreation.gov availability, read 16:14 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 sites · the site map
All 1 sites
Measured shade is NLCD Tree Canopy Cover 2024 (USDA Forest Service / MRLC) read at the site’s own coordinate, 27% canopy or more, and only for the sites the agency gave no Shade value. It never changes the agency’s own shaded count beside it.
| AREA SALMON LAKE CABIN SITKA | S18 | standard nonelectric | 180 ft |
OpenStreetMap has no toilet mapped within 1 km of this campground, so no site here carries a toilet distance. That’s a gap in the map, not a finding about the campground.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Samsing Cove CabinTongass National Forest · 7.9 mi
Kanga Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 9.3 mi
Baranof Lake Cabin12 mi
Sevenfathom Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 13 mi
Starrigavan Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 14 miAccessible nearly year round, depending on mode of access. Located 11 miles southeast of Sitka on Baranof Island, approximately 10 minutes by floatplane.
Access by boat from Sitka to Silver Bay is 10 miles, and a 2-mile trail leads to the cabin. Trail begins near mooring buoy at the end of Silver Bay. Plan arrival and departure during high tide, unload gear at east shore at estuary head, then tie up boat at mooring buoy. Please consult local tide tables before departing for the cabin.
For geographic features surrounding the cabin, refer to USGS topographic map Port Alexander D-4 and Sitka A-4.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sitka, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 49°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°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 Augusts are colder than the August 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
Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka 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 Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka 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. Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka. 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 Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka (Tongass 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 Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka 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. Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka. 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 Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka (Tongass 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 Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka 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. Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka. 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 Salmon Lake Cabin Sitka (Tongass National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com