Best Cabin Camping near Kenai Fjords National Park

For starters the road there/scenery isn’t my favorite but once you are there you forget about it. You do get to pass a pretty cool waterfall on the way. Some perks to the place are free coffee, showers $2/10 minutes, pot luck once a weekend, boat launch, cabin rentals, kayaking/tours and much more. It books up fast for some weekends so be sure to make a reservation. My two young children could play all day on the beach area eating an ice cream cone from the little shop while watching the seals/sea otters. This is a great spot and we would definitely come back again.

When we read about the very limited campsites available at Kenai Fjords National Park (only 7 at their developed campground), we wanted to make sure we would have a spot by reserving through a private campground.

We chose Miller’s Landing through a coupon we had for buy one night + get one night free. Our stay was okay, but it wasn’t the serene national park experience we’re used to. Sites were very cramped, showers were coin-operated and cold, and people were loud.

But its beautiful coastal views and morning coffee made our stay much more enjoyable. We weren’t at the campground for very long each day, and it made for a pretty decent crash pad during our two days in the park and around Seward.

In Kenai Fjords, we’d highly recommend the boat tours. We took the 9-hour Northwestern Fjord Tour with Kenai Fjords Tours and loved every minute. The narrated tour was very informative, and we enjoyed going as far into the park as we could get. On our second day, we hiked up to Harding Icefield, a strenuous 8-mile round-trip hike for more incredible views of the glaciers and surrounding beauty.

You can read much more about our two days in the park on our blog: Switchback Kids (Kenai Fjords)

We absolutely love Miller’s Landing campground! It offers the best of feeling like you’re in a tall wooded forest as well as being right on the ocean! I always feel like I’m in an enchanted forest. The office building that you check into offers a seating area you can sit in and enjoy a cup of coffee if it’s raining, or if you need to escape the sun! They also have an awesome covered back deck that overlooks resurrection bay. Rocking chairs and views are a great combination! Campsites for tents are spacious and the running water bathrooms are cleaned daily. Charters and kayak tours go in and out daily. Always fun to beach comb and explore tide pools when the tide is out! Also, sunsets ( when the sun goes down here in Alaska) are breathtaking! Dogs are allowed. Highly recommend this camp ground!

WHAT YOU MUST KNOW: The campground is either accessible via boat or hiking in at LOW TIDE ONLY. It is a lovely hike along the coast with views of eagles, bears, glaciers etc. 5.1 miles one way from Lowell point. The campsite is free but parking is $5/day or free with your state parks pass.

We found South Beach to be a wonderful place to camp. There are a few brand new wooden platforms that we set one of our tents up on, but there are lots of sites both in the woods a little way for wind protection but also along the beach and up on the grass before the beach. There are two bear bins for food. The one nearest us had a nice overhang shelter with 4 picnic tables for cooking/eating. It did rain so we appreciated having somewhere dry to eat and listen to the horror story from the group that ignored the low tide warning and were nursing their wounds from falling on the razor sharp rocks.

No running water but there's a lovely stream for water filtering nearby. 2 outhouses- Warning, no TP. Bring your own!

The trailhead to Caines head/Fort Mcgilvray is at the end of the beach by the abandoned pier and easy to find. Long story short (see the website), Fort Mcgilvray is an old abandoned WW2 fort that is worth the hike uphill to explore. Bring a flashlight. Really gorgeous views of the bay from the top. Great place for lunch at the old gun emplacements. There's even picnic tables at the lookout. There are a few other trails to explore and even a few days at the beach with a good book and a pair of binoculars would be some great R+R.