Signal Creek Campground
- Right now
- OpenInside the published season, our reading
- A night
- $10From, per site
- Sites
- 2423 on recreation.gov
- Season
- May 1Opens May 1. No closing date published.
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Signal Creek Campground is a year-round facility located in the Ward Lake Recreation Area, 7 miles north of downtown Ketchikan and about 4 miles north of the State ferry terminal. The campground straddles Signal Creek and lies on the banks of Ward Lake, with easy access to fishing, hiking and wildlife viewing. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking is a popular option, as the Ward Lake Recreation Area boasts seven trails. The Ward Lake Nature Travel meanders 1.3 miles around the lake. A large day-use complex with picnic sites and shelters is also available. Freshwater fishing, canoeing, kayaking, wildlife viewing and scenery are favorite draws at Ward Lake.
Facilities
Signal Creek Campground's sites can accommodate up to 10 people. Each campsite contains a picnic table, a campfire ring with grill and a gravel parking spur. Two hand pumps for drinking water and three vault toilets are provided. Water is provided during the peak season only. Firewood may be provided but is not guaranteed.
Natural Features
The campground is surrounded by an old-growth temperate rainforest comprised primarily of western hemlock and Sitka spruce. Signal Creek flows through the campground, and Ward Lake is adjacent. At nearly 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest covers most of Southeast Alaska and is the largest forest in the national forest system. The Tongass surrounds the Inside Passage, the network of waterways that buffers the jagged Alaskan Coast and a cluster of coastline islands. The Tongass offers visitors a chance to view wildlife, including eagles, bears and spawning salmon. Expansive vistas, including fjords, glaciers and mountain peaks abound.
What the agency tells you
Check in time is 4 PM. Check out time is 2 PM.
There is a 14 day stay limit in 60 consecutive days within the Ward Lake Recreation Area campgrounds and cabin.
Black bears frequent the area, especially during August and September; all food should be stored inside closed vehicles or in bear boxes.
Everything else this campground posts · 6
No hookups available
Nearest dump station is at the Ketchikan City Public Works department on Tongass Avenue, just north of the ferry terminal
Firewood may be available but is not guaranteed
Use of the campground or road spurs by commercial operators, outfitters or guides is not permitted
Click here to learn more 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.
Tents and rigs
- Sites
- 24
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 45 ft
- Paved pads
- 1 of 24
- Accessible sites
- 1
- Pets
- Allowed
- Campfires
- Allowed, barring fire bans
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…hand pumps for drinking water and three vault toilets are provided. Water is provided during the peak…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- “…grill and a gravel parking spur. Two hand pumps for drinking water and three vault toilets are…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 14 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Lake, Creek, Coast
- Boating
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Historic site
- Swimming
- Night sky · 265th darkest of 280 in AK
- Bortle 3
44 of 44 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 15:55 UTC
recreation.gov lists 23 of the 24 campsites the agency files here. The rest aren’t on its booking system, so a reservation won’t get you one.
OpenBooked
Watch for a cancellation
Full? Watch it.
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 · 12
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $10 a night, plus one $8 recreation.gov reservation fee for the booking. A weekend here means Friday and Saturday night, booked once. Optional charges (an extra vehicle, a second tent, a dump-station fee) are listed separately and aren’t in this total.
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 15:55 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Sep 10, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
24 sites · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 23 mapped sitesAll 24 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. 23 of the 24 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.
| SIGN | 001 | type not stated | 30 ft | 173 ft | |||
| SIGN | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 74 ft | 184 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 003 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 114 ftWard Lake | $10 | |
| SIGN | 004 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 64 ft | 89 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 005 | standard nonelectric | 45 ft | 74 ft | 139 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 006 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 125 ft | 90 ftWard Lake | $10 | |
| SIGN | 007 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 94 ft | 127 ftWard Lake | $10 | |
| SIGN | 008 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 251 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 009 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 56 ft | 216 ftWard Lake | $10 | |
| SIGN | 010 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | yes | 72 ft | 304 ft | $10 |
| SIGN | 011 | standard nonelectric | 34 ft | 72 ft | 313 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 012 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 91 ft | 326 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 013 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 54 ft | 357 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 014 | standard nonelectric | 26 ft | 54 ft | 336 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 015 | standard nonelectric | 32 ft | 62 ft | 333 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 016 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 62 ft | 310 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 017 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 86 ft | 217 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 018 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 72 ft | 159 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 019 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 72 ft | 168 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 020 | standard nonelectric | 40 ft | 74 ft | 166 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 021 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | 50 ft | 174 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 022 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | 50 ft | 124 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 023 | standard nonelectric | 20 ft | 50 ft | 145 ft | $10 | |
| SIGN | 024 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | 50 ft | 97 ft | $10 |
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
S'igeidí Aas Hídi CabinTongass National Forest · 0.0 miThree C's Group Use CampgroundTongass National Forest · 0.3 mi
Last Chance CampgroundTongass National Forest · 1.8 miLast Chance CampgroundTongass National Forest · 5.6 miIcehouse Cove Buoy Camping AreaTongass National Forest · 12 mi
Southeast Heckman CabinTongass National Forest · 13 miFrom the State ferry terminal, take Tongass Highway north 4.8 miles to milepost 7. Turn right onto Revila Road. Go 1.4 miles and turn right at the Ward Lake Road Intersection. Travel 1.1 miles past Ward Lake Day Use Area to the entrance sign for Signal Creek Campground.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Ketchikan, AK
Typical weather
Typical May night 45°F, day 59°F.
Coldest night of the open season: typical May night 45°F. Bring the bag rated for it.
Daily high and lowDays with 0.10 in or moreOutside the published season
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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Signal Creek Campground 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 →