Jack Bay Cabin

Jack Bay Cabin is located at the east end of Jack Bay in the Chugach National Forest. Access to the site is by float plane or boat only — typically a 15-minute flight from Valdez or 30 minutes from Cordova, or 20 miles from Valdez and 70 miles from Cordova by boat. Tides affect access to this cabin, so it is important to check local tide information. Visitors are responsible for their own travel arrangements and safety. Anglers will find good pink salmon fishing steps away from the cabin's front door, and coho fishing is good later in the year in nearby creeks. Razor clams, eel and crabs can be found while beachcombing at low tide. Boating is the most efficient way to explore Jack Bay; otherwise, viewing harbor seals and sea otters from the front deck is a fantastic pastime. Hunters have a long season in the surrounding national forest — bear in spring and fall, deer from late summer through late fall. The cabin is 12-by-14 feet with wooden bunks that sleep up to six guests, furnished with a table, benches, wood and oil stoves, a rainwater catchment barrel and an outdoor pit toilet. There is no running water, electricity, cut firewood or heating oil: bring drinking water, firewood and #1 stove oil, plus food, sleeping bags and pads, a cook stove, matches, cooking gear, lanterns or flashlights, toilet paper, a first aid kit and garbage bags. All trash and food must be packed out, and visitors are expected to clean the cabin before leaving. Jack Bay is located southeast of the Valdez Narrows, hemmed in by steep mountains. The cabin sits at the edge of a grassy clearing overlooking the bay, with a thick temperate rainforest of spruce and hemlock backing up to it and an understory of shrubs, fern and moss-covered logs. From mountains rising from the shoreline, waterfalls surge from ice fields and glaciers. Wildlife in the area abounds, including Sitka black-tailed deer, mountain goat and brown bear. Jack Bay State Marine Park is located 15 miles from Valdez, southeast of the Valdez Narrows. The uplands of the park consist of alder, muskeg, salt marsh and old-growth forest of spruce and hemlock. The northern arm of Jack Bay within the marine park becomes shallow a quarter-mile out and caution is recommended; although the bay can be used as a fair weather anchorage, it is not protected, and access is by boat.