San Juan 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 · 8 notices
In the agency’s own words
San Juan Bay Cabin offers recreation, relaxation and a unique lodging experience on Montague Island in the Chugach National Forest in southcentral Alaska. The remote site offers a scenic setting for fishing, wildlife viewing, hunting and beachcombing. Access to the cabin is by wheel plane at low tide from Cordova or Seward. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
The cabin is about a mile south of San Juan Creek, so it's a bit of a hike to get to the fishing, but the creek has good runs of coho and pink salmon and Dolly Varden from mid-July through mid-August. 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. The sandy landing beach, located 1/2-mile from the cabin, is a good place for beachcombers to search for glass Japanese fishing floats and other sea-borne treasures.
Facilities
The 14x16-ft rustic cabin can sleep up to six people and is furnished with wooden bunkbeds without mattresses. The cabin is equipped with a table, wood stove, oil stove, a rainwater catchment barrel, axe, saw, splitting maul and an outdoor pit toilet. The site is also equipped with an accessible ramp. The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Visitors must bring their own water, food, #1 stove oil, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cook stoves, matches, cut firewood, cooking gear/utensils, lantern or flashlight, toilet paper, first aid kit and garbage bags. Click here for more cabin details. Visitors should be aware that some of the land on Montague Island is owned by the Chugach Alaska Corporation , and access to these lands requires permission from the corporation. The area was extensively roaded and logged by the corporation from 1994 to 1998. Contact the Cordova Ranger District at 907-424-7661 for a detailed map of land ownership in this area.
Natural Features
Montague Island lies in the Gulf of Alaska at the entrance to Prince William Sound. The cabin is located at the edge of a large grassy clearing near a dense spruce forest. Low forested hills rise from the surrounding area and muskeg openings dot the landscape. This part of Montague Island uplifted about 35 feet as a result of a 1964 earthquake in the area. When the area lifted, the bay drained, and is now a meadow with the creek running through it. A new-growth Sitka spruce forest is now growing in this area. Wildlife near the cabin abounds, including migratory waterfowl, Sitka black-tail deer and brown bear.
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 the cabin; visitors must bring their own for drinking, cooking and cleaning, or treat any water from natural sources
Everything else this campground posts · 5
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
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 site is also equipped with an accessible ramp.…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…with an accessible ramp. The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Visitors must bring their own…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast, Meadow
- 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
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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
recreation.gov availability, read 16:05 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
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.
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 SAN JUAN BAY CABIN | C10 | cabin nonelectric | 1,459 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Nellie Martin River CabinChugach National Forest · 16 mi
Log Jam Bay CabinChugach National Forest · 16 mi
Beach River Cabin23 mi
Port Chalmers Cabin35 mi
Green Island CabinChugach National Forest · 38 mi
Upper Paradise Lake CabinChugach National Forest · 55 miThe cabin is 90 miles southwest of Cordova in San Juan Bay on the southwest end of Montague Island. Access to the cabin is by wheel plane at low tide only (60 minutes from Cordova, 40 minutes from Seward). Click here for local tide tables.
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
San Juan 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 →