There are a lot of places to stay in Seward, Alaska, but the most coveted places are the ones right on the beach. There are quaint old homes downtown with great views, and hotels in the harbor right by the water. But my favorite place to stay is on Lowell Point. Lowell Point is located past the edge of Seward, accessible only by a dirt road between the mountains and the bay. It is right on the water and has gorgeous views of both Resurrection Bay and Seward. And it was the location of our last camping trip at the Rocket House Cabin!
The Rocket House Cabin is owned by Miller’s Landing and can be booked using their website here. It books up quickly in the summer, and even though I’d been eyeing this cabin for a few years I didn’t actually book it until now. I’m used to using only public use cabins for camping so I wasn’t sure how this one would measure up. But with this long and cold winter I knew I needed an early season camping trip so we took a chance and booked the cabin in early April.
This cabin is located farther north than their other properties, so at first we got a bit lost (which was NOT their fault, we didn’t read their detailed directions in the confirmation email until we couldn’t find it by their other cabins) and had to backtrack to a different access road. This means that this cabin was a bit more private than the others which was great! You can drive directly up to the cabin which was a welcome change from many of the public use cabins that we’ve used over the years. We were able to quickly unpack and move into the cabin right away. We also didn’t have to pack as much stuff because the cabin had mattresses.
The cabin is really cute but also really tiny. There was a small main room downstairs with a chair, a picnic table, a twin mattress, and a wood stove. A very narrow set of ladders leads up to a small lookout room on the second floor with a full mattress on the floor. Before we got there we figured that we’d all sleep together upstairs, but it was really hard carrying Elliott up there (imagine crawling into an attic with a toddler in your hands) so we decided I’d sleep downstairs with Elliott in his playpen (and eventually in the twin bed with me) and Andrew would sleep upstairs. It worked out well but it’s something to keep in mind if you have kids. Once we had the playpen set up we barely had room for anything else.
The wood stove 
The upstairs room
Luckily most of the weekend was spent outside of the cabin! The best thing about this cabin was its location directly on the beach. There was a large porch facing the bay, a private fire pit, and endless beach to explore. There were even a few old train cars next to the cabin that my son loved looking at. We spent most of our time outside and really only stayed inside to sleep and eat breakfast. I loved the old charm of the cabin and its backstory as an observation post from WW2.
The view from the porch 
There were a few cons. The cabin was dirtier than I expected, and there were a lot of random unfinished aspects to the cabin (like nails hanging out of the walls/ceiling) that were not so great for a toddler. There was no private outhouse, so we had to walk a few minutes down the road to get to a shared outhouse (which was also not very clean). Compared to public use cabins, I found this cabin to be less clean and comfortable. You’re really booking this cabin for the view and the outdoor space.
Overall, I’d stay at this cabin again but only in the off season when it’s cheaper and there are less people on the beach than in the summertime. The views and location were incredible and definitely make up for some of the cons, but it was harder than I expected to stay there with a toddler.
Have you ever camped on the beach? Would you rather stay somewhere clean and comfortable or a place with killer views?
Mom in the Mtns 