Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter
This place has sites and nobody may sleep in them.Ask for camping here →
- Right now
- Nobody has saidNo season, no closure, no bookings to read
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 7 notices
In the agency’s own words
The USDA FS Sawmill Creek Campground is a recently renovated recreational facility with camping, picnicking, hiking, and bird and wildlife viewing opportunities nearby. It is 1.5 miles up Blue Lake Road, accessible by vehicles from May 15 to November 1 or accessible by foot, cross-country skis, or bikes year-round. The campground has 3 single tent sites and 1 group site with a 30-person capacity. There are also picnic tables, fire rings, garbage bins, and a vault toilet. Two sites can accommodate small RVs, but hookups are not available. Keep reading
For campsites, there is 14-day overnight stay limit per calendar year that is monitored and enforced year-round. It is also advised that visitors bring their own potable water or to treat water collected from Sawmill Creek. There is no campground host on site and firewood is not available for sale. Pallet burning is not allowed. Bear safety is crucial as brown bears can be present any time; please use the bear-proof lockers provided on site. The trailhead for Beaver Lake/Herring Cove Trail is accessible from the campground. This page is for advance (future) reservations for the Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter only. Unless an advance reservation is made, this shelter is free and first come, first serve. If the shelter is already reserved, the reservation dates will be posted at the shelter.
Recreation
Access to Beaver Lake Trail within campground: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/tongass/recarea/?recid=79060 Fishing opportunities in Sawmill Creek Facilities Vault Toilet Natural Features Sawmill Creek Temperate rainforest environment Views of surrounding mountains Access to Beaver Lake Trail Contact Info This location is unstaffed. To speak with our main office for general information, please call: (907) 747-4212.
Nearby Attractions
Beaver Lake Trail (within campground): https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/tongass/recarea/?recid=79060 Access to the Thimbleberry/Heart Lake Trails (on Blue Lake Road): https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/tongass/recarea/?recid=79142 Blue Lake
What the agency tells you
This shelter is only accessible with highway vehicles from May 15 to November 1
Pallet burning is prohibited. Visitors should bring firewood with them. Do not have fires underneath the picnic shelter, use the provided fire ring
Visitors should bring drinking water. It is recommened that water from Sawmill Creek be treated, boiled, or filtered before drinking
Everything else this campground posts · 4
An active population of brown bears inhabits this area. Be bear aware by: being noisy and properly storing food and other bear attractants (toiletries). Have a bear spray available. Do not leave food unattended
Keep dogs leashed and under control
Use of recreation area by a commercial outfitter or guide is not allowed; institutional outfitters including universities, schools and clubs may require a special use permit before making reservations
Click here to learn more about the Tongass National Forest
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…tables, fire rings, garbage bins, and a vault toilet. Two sites can accommodate small RVs, but hookups…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…It is also advised that visitors bring their own potable water or to treat water collected from Sawmill Creek.…”
- Firewood
- Sold here
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek
- Berry Picking
- Birding
- Hiking
- Mushroom Picking
- Water access
Nothing to book, just show up
The agency files 1 record here and marks it day use, not overnight. On its own record there’s nothing here to spend the night in.
recreation.gov publishes no availability for a campground you can’t reserve, so there’s no thirty-night reading to draw here. The season bar above is what the agency does publish.
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.
Every line of the receipt · 9
What you actually pay
How we know this receipt · 5
rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
1 records
All 1 records
| Sawmill Shelter | Sawmill Picnic Shelter | day use | yes | $25 |
The agency files 1 more record here that isn’t a site for the night. It files it as day use. It’s in the table above, marked for what it is, and it isn’t counted as a site.
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Sawmill Creek Campground and Day Use0.0 mi
Church Bight CabinAdmiralty Island National Monument · 18 mi
Pybus Bay CabinAdmiralty Island National Monument · 19 mi
West Point CabinTongass National Forest · 20 mi
Big John Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 24 mi
Portage Bay CabinTongass National Forest · 24 miLocated on Baranof Island 7 miles southeast of Sitka; from downtown Sitka follow Sawmill Creek Road 5.2 miles to Blue Lake Road; turn left on graveled Blue Lake Road 1.5 miles to Sawmill Creek Campground sign and turn right to enter the campground.
The agency publishes this point for 2 campgrounds; it’s likely a district office, not the campground. Use the agency’s own page for directions.
The weather
the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
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 · 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
Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter 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
The agency’s own record files sites here and marks every one of them day use. The draft asks whether any could open to overnight camping, and if not, why.
- 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
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter, Alaska carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter (Alaska) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter, Alaska carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter (Alaska) via campanac.com
Asks them to put the same question to the agency in writing.
Subject Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter has sites, and nobody may sleep in them
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter, Alaska carries 1 record on the U.S. Forest Service’s own file, every one of them marked day use rather than overnight. I’m asking you to put one question to the U.S. Forest Service in writing: would they consider opening any of these sites to overnight camping, and if not, why not? Road trips and camping on public land are part of how this country knows itself. It’s where a lot of people meet the place they live in for the first time, and it has never been something you had to be well off, or well organised six months in advance, to do. Sent about Sawmill Creek Picnic Shelter (Alaska) via campanac.com