Agency-listedUSFSFeeRoad season: open (MVUM)
Last Chance Campground
Drive-up · U.S. Forest Service · AK · 55.43110, -131.68660
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →U.S. Forest Service lists this as a developed campground. Expect marked sites, a fee station or a reservation, and the usual campground rules. The dispersed-camping freedom of the surrounding forest does not apply inside it. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
Nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM — Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK
The nearest road on the Forest Service MVUM is FR 8000025 (Last Chance Campground), 110 ft from the pin. The MVUM lists it as asphalt surface and maintenance level 4 – moderate degree of user comfort.
Road season: open (MVUM) The MVUM lists FR 8000025 (Last Chance Campground), 110 ft from the pin, open to passenger vehicles year-round.
MVUM record for FR 8000025 (Last Chance Campground): “01/01-12/31” Read against the calendar on 2026-09-22; with JavaScript your browser re-checks it against today.
From the Forest Service's own Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW, Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026), straight-line from the pin to the nearest mapped segment. The nearest segment is not necessarily the way in, a maintenance level is the agency's class and not a report on today, and a road's season is the road's — it is not a campground order. What the levels mean → What an MVUM is →
What the record says about the site — Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK
- Reservations accepted, walk-ins too
- Room for 19 parties
- Tent camping
- Trailers and RVs fit
- Drinking water on site
From the OpenStreetMap contributors listing for this site — their words, not our visit. Records go stale; treat it as a starting point and confirm anything your trip depends on.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Last Chance Campground
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 174 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Last Chance CampgroundNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- GGrocery2 mi
- @Mail2 mi
- RxPharmacy5 mi
- +Urgent care5 mi
- HHardware6 mi
- FFuel6 mi
- WWater6 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 2 mi out, no EV fast charger is listed within 150 mi.
Not within 60 mi: Dump, Propane. Plan those before you head up.
EV fast charger: none listed within 150 straight-line mi (US DOE data). Charge before the turn-off.
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Last Chance Campground
Access
Drive-up
Land
U.S. Forest Service
Elevation
174 ft
Ground slope
3.5% · gentle
State
AK
Coordinates
55.43110, -131.68660
Cost
Fee · priced on the land manager's own page (recreation.gov, read 2026-09-18)
Nearby & resupply — around Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureWard Creek (river) · mapped within 1.6 mi
- USGS NHDno named surface water within 1 mi
- Nearest townWard Cove · ~2.1 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waterDrinking water · ~6.3 mi
- FuelWestside Services · ~5.7 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- GroceriesAlaska & Proud Market · ~5.1 mi
- PharmacyIsland Pharmacy · ~5.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicPeace Health Ketchikan Medical Ceneter · ~5.4 mi
- HardwareMetco Hardware · ~21.2 mi
EV charging — from Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast chargerNone listed within 150 straight-line miles. Plan the charge before the turn-off.
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)22.4 mi — ELECTRIC BUS MPL ELEC BUSS, Metlakatla, AK · ChargePoint Network · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- RestroomLast Chance Campground · at this camp · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletWard Creek · ~0.2 mi SW · USFS
- RestroomWard Lake Picnic · ~1.2 mi S · USFS
- RestroomRoadside Picnic · ~1.3 mi S · USFS
Coming out here — Last Chance Campground · Tongass National Forest · AK
- Surface water mapped nearby: Ward Creek (river). That is wash water at best, and nobody has checked it for you — a creek can be dry and a tank can be mud. Filter or boil anything you drink. USGS maps no named surface water within 1 mi of the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022).
- Ground slope around the pin: about 3.5% — gentle. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (5 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Last Chance Campground elsewhere
Other camps near Last Chance Campground
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Three C'S~1.5 mi · fee
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough~1.6 mi · fee
- Ketchikan Gateway Borough~2.9 mi
The unit that manages Last Chance Campground
Stay limits, road closures and fire restrictions at Last Chance Campground are set by Tongass National Forest, not by the campsite — check there before you go.
How we know this — Last Chance Campground
Fee note
$10 a night per the Recreation.gov page, read 18 Sep 2026: https://www.recreation.gov/camping/campgrounds/232330
Source
OpenStreetMap contributors
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
Agency page
recreation.gov — the land manager's own page for this site. Fees, seasons and closures are stated there first; if it disagrees with this page, it wins.
How it was placed
auto: drive (road/trail right there) | Fee 2026-09-18: $10 per night, by site type and season (Recreation.gov rates table). Source: https://www.recreation.gov/api/camps/campgrounds/232330/rates (fee_backfill, figure verified on that page).
Site details
The OpenStreetMap contributors listing's own fields for this site (site type, whether tents or trailers fit, capacity, toilet, water, campfires, reservations). Printed as the record states them, unchecked by us, and never used to make a cost claim -- the cost verdict above is decided separately and audited before every deploy.
Nearest MVUM road
US Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Map roads layer (EDW_MVUM_01, layer 1), Clearinghouse refresh Aug 30, 2026. Straight-line distance from the pin to the nearest mapped segment within 1 mi; surface type, maintenance level and open dates are the agency's own values for that segment, expanded from its codes and otherwise unedited. Nothing here says which road reaches the site.
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Last Chance Campground
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Whether that MVUM road is the way in, and the last stretch beyond it
- Whether the site itself closes on its own schedule — only the road's season is on record
- Whether that tap is running today, and whether any stream or lake here is drinkable — the record covers the supply the site provides, nothing else
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Current fire restrictions
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it
Before you go — Last Chance Campground
Finding water out here →What “dispersed” means here →Reading a forest MVUM →Gear & rig loadout →All field notes →