Softuk Bar Cabin
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:16 UTC
- Sites
- 1All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 9 notices
In the agency’s own words
Softuk Bar Cabin offers recreation, relaxation and a unique lodging experience in the Chugach National Forest. Located 45 miles southeast of Cordova on the Gulf of Alaska, the remote site offers a scenic setting for hunting, birding, clamming, berry picking, beachcombing and wildlife viewing. Access to the cabin is by wheel plane on the beach at low tide only, typically a 25-minute flight from Cordova. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities. Keep reading
Recreation
The sandy beach adjacent to the cabin is a good stretch for beachcombing in the springtime, after winter storms wash up Japanese fishing floats, shells, bottles and other wave-swept treasures. The area is not well known for its fishing, but there is a small run of coho salmon in the lagoon behind the cabin. Digging for razor clams and picking wild strawberries are also pastimes at the site. Hunters can take advantage of a long hunting season 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 12x14-ft rustic structure can sleep up to six people on wooden bunkbeds without mattresses. The cabin is furnished with a table, wood and oil stoves for heat, an axe, splitting maul, saw, a rainwater catchment barrel and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Visitors must bring their own food, water, #1 stove oil, cut firewood, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cook stoves, matches, cooking gear/utensils, a lantern or flashlight, toilet paper, first aid kit and garbage bags. Click here for more cabin details.
Natural Features
Softuk Bar Cabin is adjacent to a long and wide sandy beach on the Gulf of Alaska, surrounded by alder and spruce forest. In the distance, glacier-capped peaks rise from the horizon on a clear day. Wildlife in the area abounds, including waterfowl, moose, Sitka black-tail deer, brown and black bear.
Nearby Attractions
For history buffs, the old townsite of Katalla is about 4 miles east of the cabin. This was the first place oil was drilled in Alaska, with the first production well drilled in 1902. There aren't many relics left from the oil drilling days and no original buildings are standing. Most of the townsite and drilling areas are on private land. Hiking toward Katalla is also scenic, however Cape Martin is difficult to cross at high tide, so check local tide tables before setting out.
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 water for drinking, cooking and cleaning, or treat all water from natural sources
Everything else this campground posts · 6
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) has been detected in the area; click here for current regulations and safety information
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
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
- “…catchment barrel and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water or…”
- Drinking water
- None, bring your own
- “…and an outdoor pit toilet. The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Visitors must bring their own food,…”
- Firewood
- Mentioned
- Stay limit
- 7 nights
- recreation.gov facility rule maxStay
Around the campground
- On the water
- Beach
- Fishing
- Hiking
- Hunting
- Wildlife viewing
2 of 2 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:16 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 16:16 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 SOFTUK BAR CABIN | C15 | cabin nonelectric | 150 ft | $60 |
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Martin Lake CabinChugach National Forest · 13 mi
McKinley Trail CabinChugach National Forest · 26 mi
McKinley Lake CabinChugach National Forest · 26 mi
Childs Glacier Recreation Area and CampgroundChugach National Forest · 32 mi
Tiedeman Slough CabinChugach National Forest · 32 mi
Power Creek CabinChugach National Forest · 43 miAccess to the cabin is by wheel plane only at low tide, typically a 25-minute flight from Cordova. Click here for local tide tables. Refer to USGS topographic map Cordova A-2.
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 33°F, day 48°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 19°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
What threatens this place
You’re camping on ground somebody wants. We track the threats and the comment deadlines.
Who answers for this land
Softuk Bar 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 →