Mat-Su Valley Area Public Use Cabins
Escape to Mat-Su Valley’s public use cabins for a secluded stay and prime access to outdoor adventures year-round. These cabins offer a gateway to hiking, kayaking, and fishing adventures in the summer and skiing in the winter. Explore nearby attractions, including Denali State Park and the Talkeetna Mountains, or simply unwind in the serenity of your cabin, surrounded by panoramic views and wildlife.
Cabins are popular among locals and can be reserved 6 months in advance. Must bring your own water, fuel to warm the cabin, food, and sleeping bag and pads and anything else you want with you. Cabins can be be booked on the Reserve America website.
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Public Use Cabins
These two almost identical cabins (only 200 feet apart) are aimed toward adventurers and families who want to include both paddling and hiking in their daily adventures. They offer direct access to two lakes as well as the park’s trail system. Though relatively close, each cabin is colored by a slightly different atmosphere. Lynx 2’s porch faces the sunset, with good afternoon sun and a view of Lynx Lake. It feels open, more exposed. Lynx 3 ...more
The Don Sheldon Mountain House may be the world’s most spectacularly situated cabin. Perched on a 4.9 acre rock and ice covered outcrop located at the 5,800 foot level, in the middle of the Don Sheldon Amphitheater just above the Ruth Gorge, it is surrounded on all sides by towering granite walls and glaciers flowing off the flanks of Denali, less than 10 miles away. It’s used primarily from March through October by photographers, skiiers, ...more
This handsome, well-seasoned log cabin is the postcard for your public use cabin dreams. If they filmed “Alaska Public Use Cabins — The Movie,” the producers would have a hard time finding a better place than James Lake for the setting.
If you want a convenient no-frills outpost close to your boat or airplane — and just off the winter trail — Nancy Lake Cabin 3 will fit the bill. What this well-used, old-style public use cabin lacks in amenities or architectural wonder may be compensated by its simplicity and ease of heating on frigid winter nights. Cozy is the word — a warm, dry refuge after a long day outside.
Located on an isthmus between a sheltered cove and the main body of a vast backcountry lake, Red Shirt Lake Cabin 2 offers a basic, easy-to-heat base for exploring 1,186-acre Red Shirt Lake regardless of weather. It gives a small party no-fuss access to water, fuel and ski trails — a cozy space to relax when the day is done and the light begins its dying slant.
Centered on a park-like island with winding trails through the brush, Red Shirt Lake Cabin 1 is a big cabin that’s an easy paddle from the launch point at end of the three-mile Red Shirt Lake Trail. From its sprawling front porch, you can glimpse water on two sides, but no major vistas. Situated in the mouth of the lake’s protected northwestern lobe, the cabin is a great launch point for exploration by canoe when the main lake becomes windy and ...more
Red Shirt Cabin 3 celebrates the ancient spirit of Red Shirt Lake as a gathering place. The lake once featured large salmon runs and summer camps for Dena’ina Native groups, and still hosts private cabins on its southern half. The cabin may be perfect for large parties in quest of lake action, a platform for those who want strenuous days of paddling, fishing, swimming, and motoring followed by rousing evening campfires.
Bald Lake Cabin is a great choice for people who want to stay at an Alaska wilderness cabin on a pristine lake, but don’t want to travel far to get there. On the hillside overlooking isolated Bald Lake, the cabin offers seclusion and privacy only a short walk from your vehicle. It’s a “best of both worlds” kind of place — where you can spend the day exploring a virtually private lake with interesting bays, or quickly dash back to your vehicle to ...more
12′ x 16′ cabin on shore of Byers Lake. Sleeps 6.
12′ x 28′ road accessible cabin that sleeps up to 6.
14′ x 16′ Cabin on Byers Lake that sleeps up to 6.
Ideal for those paddling, boating, fishing, hiking as well as those looking for seclusion away from the lake’s more popular routes for skiing and snowmobiling. The cabin faces the sunset and may be the perfect locale to string a hammock for long summer afternoons listening to forest birds.
For lakeside adventures of all kinds — with canoe trails, pike fishing and wildlife viewing nearby — try this 22,500-acre multi-use park outside Willow, featuring 131 lakes and a network of trails. Its 13 public use cabins range from places that offer motorboat access, to vehicle parking, to true wilderness refuges reachable only by canoe or ski trail. Winter creates a snow-sport mecca for cabin users too — skiing, Nordic skating, snow biking and ...more