Samsing Cove 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 read 16:13 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 10 notices
In the agency’s own words
Samsing Cove Cabin is located 5.5 miles south of Sitka, Alaska off Sitka Sound on Baranof Island. The log cabin was built in 1991 by crews from S&S General Contractors of Sitka and many local businesses, individuals and volunteers. Roger and Judy Sudnikovich, owners of S&S General Contractors, donated the cabin, which replaced a log cabin built in 1941 by the Forest Service and the U.S. Navy for enlisted personnel and the public. This is a remote site. The cabin is generally available year-round, weather permitting, and can be accessed by boat only, a 20-minute ride from Sitka. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
Recreational opportunities at Samsing Cove Cabin include saltwater fishing, kayaking (visitors must provide their own kayaks), photography, wildlife viewing and beachcombing. For information about fishing permits and seasons, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game website.
Facilities
This two-story log cabin measures 24 by 30-ft and sleeps up to 15 people. There are two separate open sleeping lofts, reached by a single stairway. Each loft contains a double plywood bunk and lots of floor space. Downstairs, the sleeping accommodations include two sets of single bunks over double bunks. The cabin includes an oil stove for heat, two large tables with benches and cooking counters with open shelving above one counter. An outhouse toilet is close to the cabin. A mooring buoy is available for boat anchorage on a first-come, first-served basis. The cabin reservation does not include exclusive use of the buoy. Good anchorage is also available without using the mooring 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 heating oil, mattresses or cooking utensils. Visitors should bring sleeping bags and pads, a cooking stove, pots, pans, plates, utensils, food, toilet paper, a lantern, garbage bags, a fire extinguisher and fire starter. Rain gear and boots are recommended. Bring #1 diesel fuel oil for the stove. Since this cabin has such a large open space to heat, it can take five gallons during the first 24 hours. After the first day, it will take two to five gallons daily to heat the cabin, depending on the time of year, heat setting chosen and outside temperature. Water is available from a nearby inlet stream, but must be treated before using. It's recommended that visitors bring their own water. Click here for more cabin information and maps.
Natural Features
The cabin sits within a small cove off Sitka Sound on a short, gently rising slope amid a rocky shoreline, surrounded by a hemlock and spruce forest. At low tide, a small gravel beach unfolds, offering beachcombing possibilities. At high tide, the small cove is a protected place for novice kayakers. On clear days, the mountain peaks above Sitka are visible through the trees and islands to the north. The Sitka Sound area is home to an abundance of wildlife and sea life. Visitors may spot orca whales and humpback whales, puffins, sea otters and sea lions. 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
Cabin is not maintained in the winter
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Treat or boil water before drinking
Pack out all garbage, food and equipment
Firewood is not provided for campfires; gather dead and down wood only
For boat charters, contact the Sitka Convention and Visitors Bureau at 907-747-5940 or online
Click here to learn 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
- Hookups
- None
- Accessible sites
- None listed
Facilities
- Toilets
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “An outhouse toilet is close to the cabin.”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “It's recommended that visitors bring their own water.”
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach
- Boating
- Fishing
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:13 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 16:13 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 16:13 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
| AREA SAMSING COVE CABIN | S16 | standard nonelectric | 493 ft |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Kanga Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 7.1 miSawmill Creek CampgroundTongass National Forest · 7.8 mi
Salmon Lake Cabin SitkaTongass National Forest · 7.9 mi
Starrigavan Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 10 mi
Starrigavan Campground and Day UseTongass National Forest · 11 mi
Freds Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 11 miAccessible year round, weather permitting. Located 5.5 miles south of Sitka, on the shore of Samsing Cove off Sitka Sound. Access is by boat only, and takes about 20 minutes from Sitka. For geographic features surrounding the cabin, refer to USGS topographic maps Port Alexander D-5 and D-4.
Please consult local tide tables before departing for the cabin.
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 42°F, day 51°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical February night 32°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
Samsing Cove 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 Samsing Cove Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Samsing Cove Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Samsing Cove 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. Samsing Cove Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Samsing Cove 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 Samsing Cove Cabin (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 Samsing Cove Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Samsing Cove Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Samsing Cove 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. Samsing Cove Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Samsing Cove 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 Samsing Cove Cabin (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 Samsing Cove Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Samsing Cove Cabin, Tongass National Forest, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Samsing Cove 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. Samsing Cove Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Samsing Cove 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 Samsing Cove Cabin (Tongass National Forest, Alaska) via campanac.com