One of the most widely used campgrounds in the Chilkat Valley is closed.
The Alaska Division of Parks, part of the Department of Natural Resources, has decided not to open the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Area campground this summer
“[It’s] kind of an alarming development,” said borough mayor Tom Morphet during Tuesday evening’s assembly meeting. He said he wasn’t sure what was driving the closure, but that the campgrounds are an important part of the local tourism economy. “We may have to raise our voices a little bit, stomp our feet.”
Regional superintendent Brad Garasky did not return repeated phone calls and emails seeking more information about the closure. He instead forwarded questions to DNR spokesperson Lorraine Henry who wrote in an email that the campground is closed “due to a lack of staffing” and that the department didn’t have an estimated opening date.
The state has been operating under a hiring freeze ordered by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in May of 2025.
Henry did not clarify what kind of staffing would be needed to reopen the area. But during the Tuesday assembly meeting, Haines Borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she has a meeting scheduled with DNR commissioner John Crowther about the hiring freeze and what would need to happen to allow state parks to hire a park technician.
“There are several communities that have received a waiver of the hiring freeze,” Fullerton said.
Henry wrote in the email that no one was available for an interview on the Chilkoot campground. But noted that the rest of the state parks’ operated area is open for use, including the boat launch and the area available to commercial operators to take people on tours.
It’s the second time in recent years that state parks, which oversees Chilkat State Park, Chilkoot Lake Recreation Site, the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, and the campground at Mosquito Lake, has closed a local campground.
The state also oversees the downtown Portage Cove State Recreation Site, which banned camping at the site in 2022. Morphet organized a ‘camp-in’ and gathered signatures from people pushing state parks to reopen the area. Ultimately the borough signed an agreement with state parks to take over active management of the area which is now again used for camping.