Best Cabin Camping near Girdwood, AK

Bird Creek camp/ RV/ Cabin site is a beautiful 25 minute journey south of Anchorage. Far enough away but close enough to town if you feel the need to get back to the city.

We rented a cabin 95$ a night and took aprox 12 young ladies in the chilly month of November! Daring, I know! But state restrooms made sharing a bathroom easy :)

there is a small wood stove and wood supplied for each cabin which was amazing! A lil kitchen area is built in for your food prep pleasure- must bring stoves and water. No electricity so bring your choice of lighting. Also I recommend headlamps for winter months as bathrooms are a small treck from the secluded wooded cabins.

Bunks are built in and a loft makes for plenty of room.

There was a beautiful table with a map in the top- pretty awesome!

There is a walking trail and it's close to the inlet for beluga whale watching and if your lucky a bore tide!

Rv sites and tents sites available as well- plus table and fire pits at each site.

We booked a one night stay here as a trial run with our brand new travel trailer. Our daughter loved it so much that she begged to stay another night. Luck was on our side as there was a last minute cancellation and we were able to extend our stay 1 more night. The park had helpful and friendly staff, clean bathrooms, a nice laundry facility, and even a playground with a communal pavilion for people to gather round together. We would stay here again. There was a bit of road noise from the nearby highway but our family wasn't bothered at all by it as we are used to living on a base with lots of jet noise. Pet friendly and Wi-Fi is available and free! Propane, water fill, and dump station are available at this park.

Coghill has an outstanding A-frame cabin and the view from the front porch is one of the best I have seen in visits to over 20 different USFS cabins in Alaska.  The view included 3,000-4,000 ft peaks covered with glaciers, and a beautiful lagoon right in front of the cabin. The flight there and back from Anchorage was incredible, we saw hundreds of glaciers, several massive ones. The area around Coghill is very swampy, and it was very buggy when we were there in the middle of Sept., all biting black flies, no mosquitos. 

the trail that supposedly exists to the estuary is overgrown, criss-crossed with bear trails,  hard to find, and very brushy where you do find it. We wondered why nobody has placed any trail markers on the trail from the cabin to College Fiord? I realize the USFS does not have the resources to maintain or improve the trail, but if it was marked regular use would help maintain the trail somewhat. But it also seems like the vegetation grows so fast there that nature is doing its best to obliterate any trail, and the many bear trails make it hard to figure out which trail is which.

When it rains the river downstream of the cabin is too large to cross, so you become very restricted in where you can fish downstream. We brought a 2.5 HP kicker motor, so we were able to explore all of the tribs that feed into the upper end of the the lake. 

we were fishing for silvers and our group caught very few during a week.  The place is very well known for sockeye, but they run in July and we were there in Sept.  the lagoon in front of the cabin and lake had about 20 harbor seals that were on constant prowl for silvers. The harbor seals were also in the river down below the cabin. with so many seals it is hard to imagine that the silvers ever have a chance to stack up anywhere without being scattered.  The cabin log book mentions the seals being there more than 20 years back, so they just seem to be a feature of this lake/lagoon system.  

The Coghill cabin was in excellent shape when we visited, and very clean thanks to the preceding group (the “Igloo Boys”). the area around the lake is incredibly beautiful!! the stove worked well but only has one heat setting (but that was not a problem).

THE ROWBOAT IS MISSING AN OAR, and really needs a new set of oars and oar locks so that the remaining oar can serve as a back up. The Igloo Boys improvised a shovel as a replacement for the missing oar, but it is only a matter of time before somebody drops the oar/shovel to the bottom of the lake and then they will have to row their way back to the cabin with only a single oar.  If you visit this cabin make arrangements with the USFS to get a new set of oars, or bring your own.  Without oars you will be very limited in where you can get to at this cabin.

This campground really has everything when it comes to a state campground. You want water access on a glacial lake? How about numerous hiking, biking skiing and horse trails? Are you looking for updated amenities including a table and fire pit, onsite bathrooms, bear proof dumpster, bear proof food storage, and a well for fresh water (no showers though) and even kayak rentals on site? Do you need large campsites with a reasonable amount of privacy instead of setting up your tent on top of someone else's? Eklutna is the spot. It is technically located within the Municipality of Anchorage about 30 minutes from down town. There is no cell service out there, so you can say goodbye to the rest of the world on your way up the mountain road. In addition, there are forest service cabins for rent that are located down one of the major trails, for even more privacy, and a different kind of adventure. Just a mile from the campground is a cute little ice cream shop for a sweet treat on hot summer days.