## Overview

 Fure\'s Cabin, a beautifully constructed one-room house, is a public use cabin in Katmai National Park and Preserve. The cabin is located on the north side of the Bay of Islands in Naknek Lake and accessed by float plane or boat. Now a refuge for kayakers, canoers, and hikers, the cabin was once the home of trapper, miner, and famed Naknek local Roy Fure. The cabin was built in 1926, a labor of love. The roof, walls, and floor are made of hand-hewn spruce logs with dovetail notching reminiscent of European craftsmanship. In 1931 the land on which the cabin stands was incorporated into the expanded Katmai National Monument. Fure\'s cabin was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
## Recreation

 Fure\'s Cabin is a key stopover for those attempting the [Savonoski Loop (PDF)][1] paddle trip, or as a beautiful destination in its own right. It is not an alternate for Brooks Camp Campground and requires a full day of paddling to reach, or the use of a boat or plane. View a list of [authorized commercial partners][2] that may provide transportation services to Fure\'s Cabin. Paddlers originating from Brooks Camp should allow one to three days to travel the 32 miles along shorelines from Brooks Camp to Fure\'s Cabin in the Bay of Islands. 
## Facilities

 The cabin accommodates up to four people and is furnished with a bunk bed, table, chairs, and a wood burning stove. Limited firewood is available on site. Guests must bring all supplies including bedding, sleeping pad, water, food, toilet paper, flash light or lantern, garbage bags, cook stove and cooking supplies. Consider packing all the supplies needed when camping. A fire ring is located in front of the cabin. Dead/downed wood may be gathered for campfires. One vault toilet is available 50 yards uphill from the cabin. 
## Natural Features

 Katmai National Monument was established in 1918 to protect the volcanically devastated region surrounding Mount Katmai and the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Today, Katmai National Park and Preserve remains an active volcanic landscape, but it also protects 9,000 years of human history as well as important habitat for salmon and the thousands of brown bears that feed on them.
## Charges &amp; Cancellations

 Fure\'s Cabin follows the standard Recreation.gov cabin cancellation policy. 

[1]: https://www.nps.gov/katm/planyourvisit/upload/Savonoski-Loop.pdf
[2]: https://www.nps.gov/locations/alaska/services.htm

Brooks Camp Campground — Katmai Bay National Park

If you are a national parks enthusiast, or even remotely interested in them, you’ve probably heard of this spot in Alaska where you can witness bears grabbing salmon straight out of a waterfall. This is Brooks Camp, in Katmai National Park.

To camp at Brooks Camp is very tricky. Sites are available for booking about a year and a half in advance of an average summer visit, on January 5th of the year before you will be visiting. They usually fill up in about 5 minutes. This is because people will reserve and put down deposits for  several weeks’ worth of camping, before they know when they’ll be visiting. Then, when they finalize their plans, they’ll cancel spots, sometimes at the last minute.

We talked to several rangers who confirmed this phenomenon. We crossed our fingers, and set a backup plan (there is backcountry camping allowed if you hike out a bit from the developed areas of the park) and hoped for the best, refreshing the recreation.gov page daily.

Sure enough, only two weeks before we’d arrive, two spots opened up (costs are per person) on our selected days and we snagged them.

Camping here was unique and wonderful. (Of course, this was probably heightened by the stress of uncertainty). The campsites were enclosed in an electric fence, there were provided wooden food caches and nice covered picnic areas, and the sites were perfectly cozy.

It’s not a cheap trip (you have to first fly to King’s Salmon then bush plane to Brooks Camp) but it is certainly an unforgettable one. It’s not an exaggeration that the bears are _everywhere_. We could have stood on that viewing platform at Brooks Falls for days.

You can read much more about our two days in the park on our blog: [Switchback Kids (Katmai)](http://switchbackkids.com/katmai/)

One of a kind experience; Nothing quite like it in the National Parks

Fortunately the campground was lovely in addition to the BEARS. Flew from Florida to Seattle to Anchorage to King Salmon .. and then took a little puddle jumper to Brooks Camp. A long and expensive trip, but worth it for the bears (and I got my money shot of a bear named Lefty catching a fish at the top of Brooks falls!)

  

Campsites are a small hike from the lakeshore, but wagons are provided. There is a food and gear building at the center of camp &amp; electric fences circling camp. Sites are well separated from others and roomy. The lodge has filling and tasty meals (especially considering how remote the location is) and a decent selection of beers.

  

Met surprise bears a handful of times on the trails and was not mauled, whoo!

  

There is one hike out of the campground that was super overgrown but beautiful if you're down with some pathfinding.