El Capitan Campground
October 2026
About
Overview
This waterfront campground offers a scenic view of the beautiful El Capitan Passage. This site has access to fishing, hunting, kayaking, hiking, caving and marine dock. It provides a remote, scenic setting for recreation and relaxation on the Tongass National Forest.
Recreation
The El Capitan Campground is nearby many opportunities Prince of Wales island has to offer. Salmon fishing is popular during the summer months as well as fall deer hunting, beach combing and other marine sports including paddle craft and sea kayaking. The nearby El Capitan Cave offers guided tours during the summer season and is the longest mapped cave in Alaska at over two miles.
Facilities
There is access to an accessible outhouse as well as a nearby covered picnic pavillion and marine dock.
Natural Features
The El Capitan Campground is in an area of high geologic interest including the El Cap Cave. The surrounding forest boasts old growth species such as yellow cedar, red cedar, hemlock, and Sitka spruce. There is abundant wildlife viewing for both aquatic and terrestrial species including Sitka black tail deer, black bear, harbor seals, otters and many fish species. Prince of Wales Island has runs of every salmon species except chinook as well as populations of cutthroat trout and Dolly Varden.
Nearby Attractions
Prince of Wales Island Visitor Guide can be found on the Prince of Wales Chamber of Commerce website.
Amenities
Phone: 907-828-3304
Is El Capitan Campground fully booked?
A campground showing no availability is almost never full for good. People cancel — plans change, weather turns, someone books three weekends and keeps one — and the site goes straight back into the booking system, usually without warning and often at odd hours. The reason sold-out campgrounds feel impossible is not that sites never free up; it is that nobody is watching at the moment they do.
CampHawk watches El Capitan Campground in Thorne Bay, AK for you. We recheck it every 15 seconds, around the clock, and the moment a site opens we send a text, an email and a push notification — and on Recreation.gov we can put the site straight into your cart, so it is held while you get to your phone.
Searching is free and needs no account — the calendar above is live right now. Watching El Capitan Campground for cancellations is the paid part.