Shelter Bay 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 16:04 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
Shelter Bay Cabin is situated on the southwest shore of Shelter Bay on Hinchinbrook Island in the Chugach National Forest. Visitors will find many opportunities for recreation and relaxation in the vicinity, including fishing, hunting, beachcombing and wildlife viewing. Access to the cabin is by floatplane at high tide, wheel plane at low tide or boat. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
The outlet channel of Shelter Bay is a popular coho salmon fishing site in August and September. Pink and chum salmon start to appear in the outlet in early July. The inlet creek at the far end of the bay is also a good spot to catch pink and chum salmon and Dolly Varden from July to August. Visitors who prefer to stay around the outlet creek can try fly fishing for sea-run cutthroat trout. 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.
Facilities
The 20x20-ft rustic cabin can sleep six people on wooden bunkbeds without mattresses. The cabin is equipped with a table, benches, a wood and oil stove for heat and an outhouse. The cabin has no running water, electricity or cut firewood. Visitors must bring #1 oil, kerosene or wood for the stove, as well as water, food, sleeping bags, pads, cook stoves and cooking gear.
Natural Features
Hinchinbrook Island is in the Gulf of Alaska at the entrance to Prince William Sound. The cabin is located on a tidal bay, surrounded by low, forested hills of spruce, hemlock and muskeg openings. Wildlife in the area abounds, including waterfowl, Sitka black-tail deer and brown bear. The beaches on the Prince William Sound offer views of the Sound and the surrounding mountains. Occasionally, humpback and orca whales can be seen spouting offshore.
Nearby Attractions
Cape Hinchinbrook Lighthouse is located on the southwest end of Hinchinbrook Island. It is a fantastic historical site that has proved invaluable directing vessels to and from Prince William Sound. Though no longer used as a primary navigational aid, the beacon still serves as a reassuring presence along the rugged Alaskan coast.
Charges & Cancellations
A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation. Late cancellations are subject to additional fees. For full details see NRRS Reservation Policy.
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
In fall, winter and early spring, the cabin may be inaccessible to floatplanes due to a frozen lake surface; please contact the local Forest Service Ranger District office for information prior to making reservations during these periods
Everything else this campground posts · 7
Water is not available at the cabin; visitors must bring their own water for drinking, cooking and cleaning, or treat all water from natural sources
All garbage and food must be packed out
Same day reservations are allowed for this cabin
From August 1 - 31, only one reservation per person is permitted
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
- Yes, the record doesn't say what kind
- “The cabin is equipped with a table, benches, a wood and oil stove for heat and an outhouse.”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Creek, Beach, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Historic site
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
Full this Saturdayread 16:04 UTC
How full the weekend is nationally.
OpenBooked
The one site on offer is taken this Saturday, and on four midweek nights after it as well. read 16:04 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.
We make nothing when you book. The link goes straight to the government.
Every line of the receipt · 15
What you actually pay
“A $10.00 service fee will apply if you change or cancel your reservation.” · this campground’s own terms
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 · 6
recreation.gov availability, read 16:04 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 SHELTER BAY CABIN | C17 | cabin nonelectric | 2,103 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Double Bay CabinChugach National Forest · 8.2 mi
Hook Point CabinChugach National Forest · 14 miFive Fingers Campsites22 mi
Port Chalmers Cabin26 mi
Green Island CabinChugach National Forest · 27 mi
Beach River Cabin38 miThe cabin is located on the southwest shore of Shelter Bay on Hinchinbrook Island. Access is by floatplane at high tide (20 minutes from Cordova) or wheeled plane at low tide (landing strip located 350 yards north of the cabin). Access by boat is 50 miles from Cordova. Boaters should inquire about local conditions before entering the bay.
Tides affect all access to the cabin. Please consult 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 Cordova, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 37°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
Roadless country, and what’s coming for it
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Shelter 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 →
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 Shelter Bay Cabin, Alaska
Dear Nicholas J. Begich III, I’m a constituent in Alaska, at-large. I tried to camp at Shelter Bay Cabin, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Shelter Bay 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. Shelter Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Shelter Bay 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 Shelter Bay Cabin (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 Shelter Bay Cabin, Alaska
Dear Dan Sullivan, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Shelter Bay Cabin, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Shelter Bay 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. Shelter Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Shelter Bay 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 Shelter Bay Cabin (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 Shelter Bay Cabin, Alaska
Dear Lisa Murkowski, I’m a constituent in Alaska. I tried to camp at Shelter Bay Cabin, Alaska, and couldn’t. All 1 sites at Shelter Bay 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. Shelter Bay Cabin keeps none, and that’s a choice somebody made rather than a rule. I’m not asking you to run Shelter Bay 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 Shelter Bay Cabin (Alaska) via campanac.com