Shipley Bay Cabin
October 2026
About
Overview
Shipley Bay Cabin offers visitors recreation, relaxation and a unique lodging experience on Kosciusko Island in southeastern Alaska. The remote site offers a scenic setting for fishing, hiking and wildlife viewing, all within the vicinity of the cabin.
The site can either be accessed by float plane or boat at high tide. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety, and must bring several of their own amenities.
Recreation
The cabin is an excellent location for anglers, as the stream and lake support cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, dolly varden, steelhead and three species of salmon.
Hikers may want to head out from the cabin on a rugged 0.8 mile natural-tread trail connecting Shipley Creek to Shipley Lake. Continuing to Devilfish Bay is an option as well, however good maps and orienteering skills are essential as there is no designated trail.
The snow-capped Mount Francis rises 2,592 feet in elevation and can be seen in the distance from the cabin on a clear day.
Facilities
The cabin is a 12 x 14 foot primitive, pre-cut cedar log cabin (pan-abode style) furnished with wooden bunkbeds (without mattresses) that sleep 4-6 guests.
The cabin is equipped with a table, benches, a tiny stove for heat and an outdoor toilet. Other amenities include a cooking counter, fire extinguisher and a broom.
The cabin does not have running water or electricity. Guests must bring their own food, water, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, cook stove/fuel, biobricks for stove, fire starter, cooking gear/utensils, light source (lantern), toilet paper, first aid kit and garbage bags. Water is available from the nearby stream, but must be filtered, boiled or chemically treated before drinking.
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Natural Features
The cabin sits on a low bluff between Shipley Creek and Shipley Bay on Koscicusko Island. The front of the cabin faces out to a large rocky beach, and a grassy tidal flat extends from its back where Shipley Creek meets the ocean.
Wildlife in the area abounds, including a variety of waterfowl, shore birds, bald eagles, Sitka black-tailed deer and black bears. Learn more about bear safety in the Tongass National Forest.
Amenities
Is SHIPLEY BAY CABIN 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 SHIPLEY BAY CABIN 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 SHIPLEY BAY CABIN for cancellations is the paid part.