Starrigavan Campground and Day Use
- Right now
- Taking bookingsSites offered on 30 of the next 30 nights read 16:33 UTC
- A night
- $12From, per site
- Sites
- 35All of them booked ahead
The place
the agency’s own description · what’s there · 13 notices
In the agency’s own words
Starrigavan Campsites lie within Starrigavan Recreation Area about seven miles north of Sitka. Visitors enjoy hiking, photography, wildlife viewing, picnicking, fishing and kayaking. Learn more about the campsites here . Access to Sitka is by boat or airplane. The campsites are a two-minute drive from the Alaska Marine Highway Sitka Ferry Terminal or a seven-mile drive from downtown Sitka or the airport. Keep reading
Recreation
Hiking, picnicking and wildlife viewing are popular pursuits at Starrigavan. Visitors also enjoy fishing in saltwater and freshwater areas. Many bird and wildlife viewing opportunities exist. Hiking options include the Estuary Life Boardwalk Trail, Forest and Muskeg Trail, the Mosquito Cove Trail and numerous intertwining path and roadways of the recreation area. For information about fishing permits and seasons, visit the Alaska Department of Fish and Game .
Facilities
This primitive camping area is fully accessible and offers a variety of accommodations, including group tent sites, individual campsites (both drive in, one is pull through, and hike-in) and Starrigavan Creek Cabin . Several sites overlook Starrigavan Bay; others are close to Starrigavan Creek. Maximum RV length accommodated is 38 feet. Two small group tent sites accommodate up to 20 people, offering twice the amount of tent space and vehicle parking as individual campsites. They also have covered cooking shelters with two picnic tables, a large grill and a fire ring with two log benches. Picnic tables, campfire rings, gravel tent pads and gravel parking spurs are furnished at the individual sites. Vault toilets, drinking water, bear-proof food lockers and seasonal trash collection are provided. Firewood is provided for a small fee. A dump station is located in Sitka, seven miles away.
Natural Features
The campsites are situated within a typical temperate rainforest of hemlock and spruce trees with salmonberry bushes, low shrubs and mosses covering the forest floor. The Starrigavan Recreation Area is home to a diverse range of forest, estuary and marine habitats. Depending on the season, visitors might spot brown bear, spawning coho (silver) and pink (humpy) salmon, common merganser, bufflehead, bald eagle, great blue heron, kingfisher, river otter or Sitka black-tailed deer.
Nearby Attractions
The State of Alaska's Old Sitka State Historic Site is nearby. Visitors can take half or full-day kayak trips to Katlian Bay and Siginaka Islands.
What the agency tells you
Open year-round.
Vehicle access varies throughout the year depending on daylight hours. Summer open gate hours are generally 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m starting in late August as the daylight hours diminish. Please call the Sitka Ranger District (907-747-6671) for questions about gate hours.
Vehicle access during the winter will depend on the presence of snow/ice on roadway and winter host availability for managing gates; check with the Sitka Ranger District (907-747-6671) for current conditions. When access gates are closed, customer equipment/supplies must be packed in by non-motorized means; parking is available off highway near the entrance to the recreation area.
Everything else this campground posts · 10
Access gates are closed and traffic is not permitted to enter or exit the recreation area outside established open hours. Exceptions are made on a case by case basis for customers with a campsite reservation who are arriving or departing on the Alaska Marine Highway during hours the gates are closed. Contact the Sitka Ranger District (907-747-6671) for additional information.
November 1 through April 30: All Campsites available on walk-up basis only with payment made in one of the fee collection boxes in the recreation area or at the Sitka Ranger District office.
Starrigavan Host is located in cabin at last left-hand turn before the end of the state highway.
Food storage required.
An active population of brown bears inhabits Starrigavan. Be bear aware by: being noisy, storing food in vehicles or high in a tree when not actively eating at table or around fire ring, keeping dogs leashed and under control, cleaning food remnants off grills, packing garbage to bear-proof garbage cans provided at the host site and not cleaning or smoking fish within Starrigavan Recreation Area.
Tent pads are gravel; for comfort, additional padding may be needed under tent and/or sleeping bags.
Additional campsites available on first-come, first-served basis.
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.
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
- 35 · 6 tent-only, 10 walk-in, 2 group
- Hookups
- None
- Longest rig
- 38 ft
- Accessible sites
- 34
- Shade
- Every site
Facilities
- Toilets
- Vault Toilets
- “…are furnished at the individual sites. Vault toilets, drinking water, bear-proof food lockers and…”
- Drinking water
- Yes
- WATER (SEASONAL) on 6 of 41 campsite records
- Dump station
- Yes
- Firewood
- Mentioned
Around the campground
- On the water
- River, Creek, Coast
- Biking
- Boating
- Fishing
- Historic site
- Ranger programs
- Night sky · 234th darkest of 280 in AK
- Bortle 2
30 of 30 site-nights open this Friday and Saturdayread 16:33 UTC
Every site here is reservable, and the record lists none held back for anyone who drives up.
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 · 14
What you actually pay
Derived by CAMPANAC: the agency’s published rate for this season, $12 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 16:33 UTC · rules read Sep 9, 2026 · rates Oct 1, 2026 · How we know all this
The sites
41 records · which ones have room · the site map
The sites, ranked
from 33 mapped sitesAll 41 records
The price is derived by CAMPANAC, not published per site: the per-night rate this campground publishes for each site’s own site type. 34 of the 41 sites listed carry one, and a site whose type has no published rate sits out of the price rather than being called free.
| BACK | 027H | walk to | yes | 50 ft | 1,123 ft | $12 | |
| BACK | 028H | walk to | yes | 44 ft | 1,159 ft | $12 | |
| BACK | 029H | walk to | yes | 46 ft | 1,172 ft | $12 | |
| BACK | 030H | walk to | yes | 44 ft | 1,190 ft | $12 | |
| BACK | 031H | walk to | yes | 59 ft | 1,275 ft | $12 | |
| BACK | 032H | walk to | yes | 59 ft | 1,326 ft | $12 | |
| BAYS | 039 | walk to | yes | 112 ft | 1,451 ft | $12 | |
| BAYS | 040 | walk to | yes | 100 ft | 1,361 ft | $12 | |
| BAYS | 041 | walk to | yes | 100 ft | 1,279 ft | $12 | |
| BAYS (DAY USE ONLY) | 33 | day use | yes | $15 | |||
| BAYS (DAY USE ONLY) | 34 | day use | yes | $15 | |||
| BAYS (DAY USE ONLY) | 35 | day use | yes | $25 | |||
| BAYS (DAY USE ONLY) | 36 | day use | yes | $25 | |||
| BAYS (DAY USE ONLY) | 37 | day use | yes | $15 | |||
| BAYS (DAY USE ONLY) | 38 | day use | yes | $15 | |||
| ESTU | 001 | standard nonelectric | 19 ft | yes | 82 ft | 356 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 002 | standard nonelectric | 35 ft | yes | 61 ft | 405 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 003 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 61 ft | 381 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 004 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 83 ft | 300 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 005 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 90 ft | 229 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 006 | walk to | yes | $12 | |||
| ESTU | 007 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 113 ft | 176 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 008 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 65 ft | 35 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 009 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 65 ft | under 10 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 010 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 100 ft | 49 ft | $12 | |
| ESTU | 011 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 67 ft | 108 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 012 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 67 ft | 96 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 013 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 63 ft | 210 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 014 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 63 ft | 210 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 015 | tent only nonelectric | 94 ft | 304 ft | $12 | ||
| ESTU | 016 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 82 ft | 301 ft | $12 | |
| ESTU | 017 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 68 ft | 200 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 018 | standard nonelectric | 30 ft | yes | 68 ft | 132 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 019 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 87 ft | 202 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 020 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 87 ft | 212 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 021 | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 183 ft | 180 ft | $30 | |
| ESTU | 022 | group tent only area nonelectric | yes | 203 ft | 23 ft | $30 | |
| ESTU | 023 | standard nonelectric | 25 ft | yes | 64 ft | 236 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 024 | standard nonelectric | 38 ft | yes | 64 ft | 297 ft | $12 |
| ESTU | 025 | tent only nonelectric | yes | 149 ft | 427 ft | $12 | |
| ESTU | 026 | type not stated | 38 ft | yes | 394 ft |
The agency files 6 more records here that aren’t sites for the night. It files them as day use. They’re in the table above, marked for what they are, and none of them is counted as a site.
25 of 41 listed
Getting there
the map and the coordinate · the agency’s directions · the phone number
Where it is
Starrigavan Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 0.3 mi
Brents Beach CabinTongass National Forest · 7.5 miSawmill Creek CampgroundTongass National Forest · 7.7 mi
Allan Point CabinTongass National Forest · 7.7 mi
Freds Creek CabinTongass National Forest · 10 mi
Samsing Cove CabinTongass National Forest · 11 miStarrigavan Recreation Area is located 7 miles northeast of Sitka at the end of Halibut Point Road and 3/4 mile from the local Alaska Marine Highway Ferry Terminal. There are no roads to Sitka. Access is via the Alaska Marine Highway or Alaska Airlines.
Upon exiting the Ferry Terminal parking lot, turn left. Estuary and Backpackers Loop are the last right hand turn before the end of the highway. Bayside Loop is the last left hand turn before the end of the highway.
From the airport, go across Japonski Bridge to downtown Sitka. Take Halibut Point Road north 7 miles to Starrigavan Recreation Area.
The weather
the next four days · the thirty-year normal
Next four days, and the thirty-year normal
Forecast
NWS forecast for Sitka, AK
Typical weather
Typical October night 39°F, day 49°F.
Coldest month of the year: typical January night 29°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
Starrigavan Campground and Day Use 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 →