★ Field-verified · Dave's ownPublic land · dispersedFree
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
Drive-up · public land · Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, AK · 56.15852, -133.31434
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 →Dave's been here. A spot from Dave's own travels on public land — free to camp. Conditions still change, so confirm access, stay limits and fire rules before you go.
Nice! A peninsula on Prince of Wales Island near El Capitan Cave. Very spacious, with enough room for multiple overland vehicles. No cell service. Water on all side of this site, with fire ring. Totally primitive. Boating activity. Beavers, abundant wildlife. Might see whales. One of the best free places on beautiful island. Strongly recommended.
A night on record
Dave slept here on 30 August 2018. No agency publishes a season for this site, so that night is the only season evidence we have — what the site was then, not a forecast for this year.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 18 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Prince of Wales-Hyder Census AreaNIFC · 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area · public land · AK
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- FFuel8 mi
- @Mail8 mi
- WWater36 mi
- GGrocery39 mi
- HHardware42 mi
- RxPharmacy42 mi
- +Urgent care42 mi
- LLaundry47 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water is a real 36-mi drive, fuel & food sit about 8 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 — Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
Access
Drive-up
Land
public land · dispersed
Elevation
18 ft
Ground slope
1.4% · flat
County
Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, AK
Coordinates
56.15852, -133.31434
Cost
Free
Nearby & resupply — around Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area · public land · AK (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featurenone named within 1 mi (USGS NHD)
- Nearest townWhale Pass · ~10.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelLast Chance Gas · ~7.6 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Groceriesnone within 30 mi
- Mapping is thin out hereAn empty row means nothing is mapped within that radius — not that nothing exists. Small stores, seasonal resorts and single fuel pumps out here often never make it onto the map. Treat these as unconfirmed and ask locally.
From the field — what Dave saw, in person
Cell service
No signal
Getting there
Any vehicle managed it
Fire ring
Yes
Toilet on site
No
Tent friendly
Yes
Verdict
Highly recommended
EV charging — from Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area · public land · 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)99.6 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area · public land · AK — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Vault / pit toiletEl Capitan Cabin · ~0.3 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletEl Capitan Cave Interpretive Visitor Center · ~0.4 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletEl Capitan Campground · ~0.4 mi NW · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletBeaver Falls Karst · ~3.3 mi E · USFS
Coming out here — Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area · public land · AK
- No named surface water mapped within 1 mi of the pin in USGS's National Hydrography Dataset (data refreshed October 2022), and none within about a mile and a half in our OpenStreetMap pull — which is not proof there is none, only that neither map has one. Plan to carry washing water as well as drinking water.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1.4% — flat. 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.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- 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 Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area elsewhere
Other camps near Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- El Capitan Campground~0.4 mi · fee
- Horseshoe Hole~24.8 mi
Who holds the land at Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
USGS’s Protected Areas Database (PAD-US 4.1, queried 2026-09-23) lists the ground at this pin as Tongass National Forest, manager on record: Forest Service (federal). That names who holds the land — it is not a statement that camping is permitted here.
How we know this — Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
Source
Dave's own travels
Confidence
Researched — The record is detailed and internally consistent, and the coordinates land where the managing agency says this site is.
How it was placed
FIELD VERIFIED by Dave Lalande -- he has stood on this site. Coordinates are his own GPX track point, not a geocode. County and state confirmed against the FCC Census Block API (Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area, AK). Everything under 'From the field' is a direct observation; nothing here is inferred from a land record.
A night on record
Dave's own GPS diary, 2017–2020: the date of the waypoint he saved here. The timestamp is UTC, so an entry saved in the evening carries the next morning's date. An observation of one night, never a forecast.
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
Verified on the ground. Dave has stood on this one. He camped here on 30 August 2018. Conditions still change — confirm before you commit.
What we don’t know about Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area
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.
- How many rigs actually fit
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it