September 10-13, 2024.
Alaska has a system of public use cabins that you can rent throughout the year. According to Alaska.org, there are over 300 of them scattered across the state. You can reserve your stay online and it costs between $30-$75 per night. Some are seasonal, some you must fly or boat in and all are rustic. Any cabin located somewhat close to civilization is likely to be fully booked, so you’ve got to plan ahead or get lucky in order to stay in one (similar to the fire tower situation in the Pacific Northwest). As a person who doesn’t care to spend my time meticulously planning the exact day and minute I need to be logged into rec dot gov to get a reservation, I hadn’t planned on staying one during our Alaska visit.
Preparation
Buuuuuut…just in case I found an opening, I checked on cabin availability in Juneau. Since we’d be there for two whole weeks, the odds were in my favor that I could snag a night somewhere. Luckily, I found three nights in a row that were available mid-week at the Saturday Creek Cabin during our trip. I reserved the cabin and then read the check in details closely. If you’re thinking about reserving a public use cabin in Alaska, please be sure do do your homework first to see if it’s a good fit!
One thing caught my attention: we’d need to buy kerosene to heat the cabin. The website recommends 1 gallon per night for summer and 2 gallons per night for winter. Since we’d be there in the fall, and they come in 5 gallon jugs, we purchased 5 gallons. To save you time in driving to ten different stores, we picked ours up at Fred Meyer!
The cabin
We arrived at the cabin late in the evening due to spending the whole day hiking and then furiously searching for kerosene! After making a late dinner and getting the kerosene stove fired up, we laid out our bedding material and crashed out hard. The next morning, we slept in and I didn’t even get breakfast started until it was nearly 10 am! But, freshly cooked pancakes with yesterday’s huckleberry stash was just what we needed to start this cabin stay right!
The cabin is very basic: four walls and a long sleeping platform. Inside there is a large picnic table pushed against the front of the cabin, near the giant window. The view overlooks the adjacent river, which at the time was constantly visited by birds. We even saw a seal swimming upstream each evening. Between the table and sleeping area is the kerosene stove, which heats the cabin. There is also an upstairs sleeping loft that we did not use. After being crammed in a van for the last year, the inside felt SO spacious and I loved having a huge table to spread out all my artwork and projects.
Outside the cabin is another picnic table and a fire pit. It is surrounded by trees that I used to put up a hammock. If you can stand the dead fish smell, it’s a great place to lay around and read a book! It’s also a great place for bird watching. We didn’t see any bears during our stay, but after reading the entries in the visitor log, it became apparent that bear sightings aren’t uncommon.
While a stay at this cabin felt quite luxurious for us, I doubt that many other visitors would feel the same way. If you’re used to having running water, electric lighting, refrigeration, etc. this is not going to be a good time. But if you’re okay roughing it, I think you’ll enjoy the serenity and simplicity of a stay at Saturday Creek Cabin.
Day trips
Having some space to spread out and breathe meant we read books, created art, played games and napped. A lot. But we also took a couple easy hikes from our base camp. The campground itself is beautiful and worth a walkaround.
Our second hike took us to Boy Scout Beach. It was a short drive from the cabin, but from that hike we got to look back at the view that we were living in. “Hey, there’s our cabin,” I shouted as I pointed across the Eagle River. From our walk we enjoyed seeing a ton of eagles and one rough-skinned newt! We ran into a local who recommended a secret short-cut back that led through a grove of planted trees. It didn’t look like much from where we were standing, but we thanked him and went on our way. We continued to the beach and explored around until we felt like heading back.
Although the recommended route looked sketchy and overgrown, we decided to take it. Why not? It actually turned out to be beautiful, like walking through a cathedral of trees. And the kicker: RED HUCKLEBERRIES. Everywhere! We stopped and picked to our heart’s content, grateful for that chance run in.
I’ll say it again and I’ll keep saying it forever: when you get a local recommendation, take it! They’ve hardly ever let us down. And, wherever you’re local to, offer cool suggestions to people. That give and take is what makes travel amazing.
After having this wonderful experience at an Alaska public use cabin, I’m definitely interested to experience another one. There’s no time on this visit, but I have a feeling we’ll be back here.